I've Never Seen
by 0WritersBlock0
Summary: Valhalla. Home to the greatest warriors of the Nine Realms. Magnus Chase has made himself a name as the Son of Frey who saved the Realms multiple times. But when a new group of warriors joins the ranks, another Child of Frey is discovered. She doesn't seem to enjoy Valhalla, save for the presence of her friends. Nothing about her seems true. Why is she the protagonist? You'll see.
1. Chapter 1: Kidnapped

I've Never Seen

I was going to kill them.

I was going to kill every single one of those bastard Norse assholes that thought they could just kidnap me and keep me hostage in this palace of a jail. The place looked great, yes. There was more food and stuff in general than I would have had in my life on Earth, yes. But that doesn't solve my problem of how the hell I'm going to take care of the kids I kept watch over while still alive.

I was going to just tell this story to the noobs that make it into Valhalla, but it seems like too damn complicated to have to remember every single detail, so I'll be writing it down for whoever wants to read it. (And yes, we have wifi in Valhalla. Sucks for those living demigods down in New York who have to live without the Internet. SUCK IT, SOUTHERNERS! Sorry, that's what I call people anywhere south of Denmark. Because you know, Norse stuff.) Shit, I got distracted!

Whatever, not a big deal. Anyways, this first chapter of the story of my bullshit life is going to be about how I was kidnapped by an angel girl with a hijab who basically cursed me out in Arabic while I threw more profanities back at her face in Spanish and English and whatever other languages I can curse in.

* * *

It was, actually, a peaceful day in the shitty foster home I lived in. Unlike usual, which consists of a lot of screaming and annoying kids and teenage girls whining about how their phones reached the max data limit, so they can't use Snapchat and the other social media things on cellular. (Not my fault you have no self control, bitch.) I had just finished making cinnamon roll pancakes for the littlest ones, who begged me since seven in the morning to make them breakfast. I had just started on making those pancakes for myself when I heard the news channel on the TV make the breaking news that some kind of electrical problems had been spreading throughout the neighborhood.

Being the safety-obsessed person I am, I rushed to make sure there were no electrical hazards in the house (after turning off the stove, of course) and told all the children, about eight total excluding me, that they had to stay away from the electrical outlets. No child was going to get hurt on my watch.

And I assumed the worst would happen, but literally nothing happened the entire day until when I went into the city to get groceries for my foster parents, both of whom were doctors, and I got into a fight with some guy who tried to steal my wallet.

He'd been reaching for it even since I was in line to pay for the bags of food stuffs and health products the kids needed. I turned around and glared at him until he backed off. And then when I was walking back to the bus station, he grabbed me and practically ran off with my wallet. (Sucks for that bitch, I only keep cash!) But the wallet was the only important thing in there.

And when was I kidnapped, you ask? I got kidnapped at school. The shithole that is academic jail. I just hated that the girl took me with no real notice or explanation. Just stole me.

* * *

I actually was having quite a pleasant day thus far because I'd done great on the two most recent tests I had and I was going to finally be able to meet my friends and go out with them for dinner that night. I was just excited to get ready to go to college next year and have fun learning my favorite subject and my career of choice, obstetrics and gynecology.

Mind you, it was wintertime and cold as hell (despite the fact that it was in Atlanta), so I'd bundled up all my siblings in the warmest clothes they had. We all left for school perfectly on time and I had prepared really damn well for the presentation I had for my AP European History class. I was gonna ace that thing!

The entire school was in shock when there was a code red lockdown because of an intruder in the school. I didn't even know people targeted Atlanta schools in the first place! What's in Atlanta?! Nothing! Just the Coke Factory and the CNN headquarters! I digress. That has no real connection to my point, but you get what I'm trying to say.

Everyone had been ordered to stay in their classrooms while the school resources officer tried to find the intruder and take them down. Due to my misfortune and bullshit, the armed intruder had actually entered through a side entrance and my classroom, among others, was on the hall through which the intruder passed to get inside. And somehow, due to even more misfortune, the guy broke through our door, which was locked, and grabbed me by the neck as some kind of hostage.

Don't know why anyone would want me as a hostage because I literally hold no value whatsoever, but whatever. Not my deal what people think of me. I was dragged to the hallway, until I got into a rage. I know, it is so convenient that a true bad guy comes to my school and takes me specifically as a hostage instead of anyone else, who is probably more valuable, and I get angry and fight him and then go to Valhalla, but just hear me out.

When we were informed of the intruder situation, I was terrified for my life. And then I was terrified for the lives of my beloved friends, who are my entire life and give me purpose. Taking care of them and my siblings is my only reason to live. I just wanted to keep them safe. So, to hear that some asshole intruder could hurt them and possibly kill them, I went into a murderous rage. (I'll explain the origins of this rage later on.)

I wasn't going to let anyone hurt my friends. So, like the fool that I am, I turned around and body-slammed the guy into a wall and then grabbed his hair and smashed it into the wall a few times until he was bleeding and knocked out. At this point, I found some kind of rope th ing in his jacket and tied his hands together. Thankfully, I somehow still had my gloves on at this point (I was in a healthcare class and we were learning about how to dress wounds and I had to wear gloves.) and I grabbed his gun just so he wouldn't have anything to kill me with. I hoped he didn't have anything else.

I dragged the guy by his neck to the front entrance of the school and waited there for law enforcement. I only realized I had been stabbed a few moments after it happened because I was so shocked by the sensation of pain and the fact that the guy had an accomplice.

How was I to know there was someone else working with this asshole?! All I remember was falling to the ground and leaning against the wall for support. Once the guy was arrested, I was somehow suddenly surrounded by my friends. My darling, beloved friends that I only lived to take care of and protect. They cried awhile. They sobbed and tried to get me to accept some kind of medical attention. I know this sounds dumb, but I didn't want that. I could literally feel myself dying.

I just told them how much I cared for them and how much I'm honored they even let me be their friend. I'll probably tell you guys more details about that later on if I'm not too depressed by how I lost my purpose in life in a matter of less than an hour.

I closed my eyes and slept as my more musical friends sang to me and as the others just hugged me.

I woke up a moment later to that same girl with the hijab that stole me from my family and friends. I heard no other sound than my sobs as she carried me to the Warrior Heaven of the Norse...


	2. Chapter 2: Accepted

I've Never Seen

She didn't seem to really care how much I was crying. I mean, I know I kinda contradicted myself in that last part, explaining how I lost any desire to live but also wanted to stay with my friends. Yeah, it's confusing, but I am a confusing person. I confuse myself enough times that I've come to know that it's just part of my personality.

I just wanted my friends back. The main reason? I loved them more than I loved my foster family. I know that sounds bad, but can you blame me? I didn't want my foster family. I didn't want my real family either. I just wanted people I could trust to love me no matter what. Usually, that would be a family.

But my friends were my family. The only ones I trusted, at least. My real family was full of pompous, hateful people. They hated that I was bisexual, hated that I was atheist, hated that I didn't want to listen to their dreams of how they wanted me to live. I kept disagreeing, and they got sick of my shit and kicked me out. Now, I can't completely blame them. People always have big dreams of how they want their kids to be happy and stuff in the future. My family did too. I never agreed with their dreams, and that was the problem. They were fine with all other aspects of my life except for those three things: my sexuality, my religious preference, and my desire for independence from their influence. I didn't want to live how they wanted me to live. They decided that was unforgivable on my part and ditched me.

And then comes my foster family. They're not bad people. They just aren't good people. They do all the right family things: they feed me, clothe me, shelter me. But they don't love me. I know they don't. How? Because they're currently sustaining ten people in the same household. That doesn't leave much room for loving everyone. My foster parents have two kids of their own and six foster kids including me. I know they don't love me. I didn't expect them to. Frankly, I didn't want them to. Because from what I've seen? Every adult's love is conditional. Every single one. Maybe that's just how adults roll in this world, but I'm not down. I would never.

So now, this brings me to my actual point. I wanted my friends. They were home, safety, security, love, strength, affection, everything. I only lived to protect them. I only lived to love and care for them. I didn't have much else to live for except my own dreams, and that gets lonely real quick.

The girl didn't let me go. Not for a longshot. It was easy to forget my foster family and real family. It was easy to ignore how they would have felt knowing I died. It was so hard to think about my friends and their broken hearts. Or maybe their hearts weren't broken at all. That's probably why I tried so hard to forget my friends too. I was scared that they wouldn't miss me.

The girl with the hijab was really pretty, at least from what I could see. (This isn't a random detail. Shut up and let me explain!) I thought she was an angel of some sort. I then thought to myself, _Well I'll be fucking damned. The Muslims got it right after all. Wait. I thought they didn't have angels in Islam. Or am I just an idiot? Wait, maybe I can ask her._ So instead of using tact, logical reasoning, and common sense, I blurted out the first piece of bullshit that my mind had come up with. "Are you a Muslim angel? Is that even a thing?"

She gave me this disdainful look, which shut me up immediately. I couldn't understand why she was so offended by that, but didn't dare ask that as well. Eventually she sighed and looked at me, hefting me up a little so she could hold me better. "My name is Samirah al-Abbas. I am a _Valkyrie_ , and apparently, you're a child of a Norse god. I'm here to bring you to Valhalla because you've died at the hand of an enemy with a weapon in your hand. After that, you're gonna train, do some cool stuff for the gods, and then you're going to participate in Ragnarok."

"First of all, I was so fucking right. Second of all, no. I'm good. I'll just go to hell, thanks. That's way easier. I don't wanna go on adventures, I don't want a stupid god telling me what to do, and I don't want to fight some idiot's war. I'm good. Drop me here, and I'll yeet myself to hell, thanks. Satan's a babe. I'd totally spend eternity with him given the chance. So yeah. Drop zone in three… two… one!"

Samirah groaned and rubbed her temples. "You're almost worse than Magnus. He was dumb, but not nearly as much as you."

"Thanks, beautiful. I get that a lot."

"Are you seriously trying to flirt with me right now?"

I grinned and tapped her nose with my pointer finger. It took a lot of finagling, but I did it. "Clever girl. Very perceptive. But no. I am not. One, you wouldn't want me, and two, you're not my type. No offense."

She huffed and rolled her eyes, grumbling to herself in a low voice. Eventually, probably after getting out all her anger under her breath, she continued to speak. "You're dumb. And no offense taken. You'd have a better chance flirting with a child of Thor than me. Those kids really are super dense. Fall for a girl in seconds."

"Seriously?"

"No. And don't let your ego get to your head."

I snorted. "My ego is always in my head. What then?"

"Die."

"Ouch. If you're a Muslim angel, then why are you so mean?"

"Why are you so difficult?"

"Probably because I have no common sense and love arguing. And I have a smart-ass streak a million miles wide. But touché, sweetheart."

"Just let me finish?" she sounded absolutely exasperated with my mere existence, so I decided to provide her some mercy and relief and shut my mouth as she continued to explain stuff. "Thank you. You have a godly parent from the Norse pantheon that will claim you once you reach Valhalla and are accepted by the judges. If they deem you worthy, you'll be accepted and will join the _einherjar_. If not, you'll be sent to Helheim or another of the Nine Worlds for further judgement of what to do with your soul. If you are accepted as an _einherji_ , you'll fight for the gods in Ragnarok. Now I'm done. Ask your dumb questions now."

"Why can't the gods do it themselves? If they're gods, they should be able to handle this shit on their own. They have millennia of experience behind them. We have fifteen, sixteen, maybe seventeen. Not fair of those assholes to make us fight their wars."

She scowled and smacked my head, glaring coldly. "Just because you don't believe in respect doesn't mean you can do that around me. Now they'll think I've brought an asshole like you to Valhalla because I don't respect them."

I glared back, rubbing my head. "Oh, save it! I don't give a fuck! I never asked for any of this bullshit! I just wanted to die in peace and be left alone. I don't care about their war or anyone else's. This is my life. I choose to do with it whatever I want. Keep out of my shit. I don't want any part in your trashy high school fantasy novel, darling. Send me to Helheim and be done with me. I'd rather Hell than this shithole."

Samirah softened a little at my rage. She rubbed her arm and looked at me seriously, but kinda gently. "Look. I know you never chose this. But not everyone does. I'm not saying you have to enjoy being here. I'm saying you have to at least try to be here. If not, you can happily go to Helheim and live out your life protected by Hela's mercy. But if you do, think of the good you can do to the world by protecting it as an agent of peace and love. Maybe Asgard isn't as much love as Vanaheim, but you gotta try. Please? Just work with me here. Trust me."

I broke a little at her words. Those last two burned in my heart. I didn't want to, but what other choice did I have? It was her, or the rest of the einherjar, of whom I knew none. "O-Okay… Just don't make me a fool in front of them. Whether or not I stay in Valhalla, I want some kind of dignity to remain with me."

She nodded and smiled a tiny bit, as if she were trying to hide it from me. "That, I can do."

"Also, I never realized how dumb I was. Sorry."

Her face morphed into one of shock when she heard my words. "What?"

"I forgot that angels don't wear body armor."

Her shock turned into disgust and irritation within milliseconds. She turned her face to the skies and prayed helplessly, "Allah, give me the patience to deal with fool." I cackled at her despair.

As we continued to ascend, I felt awe fill my being. This wasn't the place that years of Marvel's Thor movies and sexy shots of Chris Hemsworth taught me. Asgard was a godly sight. Pun intended. I felt my eyes water and burn as I stared on. My heart ached with an unknown yearning to go there, to be among those people, to love them as I loved my friends. But I snapped out of it quickly. Very quickly. My mouth tasted bitter from the thought of forgetting (read: betraying) my darling friends for this city of fakers and assholes that only lived to keep me under their golden chains so I could be their wardog.

Samirah physically turned my head away from the golden city, keeping my eyes on her or the huge hall far away from the glittering gates. "Don't look too long. You'll go blind. But keep your eyes ahead. That's your new home now. Valhalla. Or, I hope it is."

I kept my eyes pressed against the chainmail on the back of her neck. I didn't want to look at that place. This wasn't my home, and the people within those walls weren't my family, no matter how much this chick wanted them to be. She only patted my hand when I clenched onto her shoulder plate with it. "It's okay. I'm here. Just stay with me, okay? I know you're scared. Trust me."

My head meekly nodded in quiet obedience. Why was I so soft so suddenly? I was sad. I was scared. I wanted my family. I wanted to go home. But where was my home? My real parents didn't want me. My new parents didn't need me. My friends can't keep me. What was home anymore? What was life anymore? How many licks _are there_ at the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? Why was that owl such an asshole? Why was Samirah such an asshole? Why was I such an asshole? What is an asshole? All valid questions.

I stayed quiet, continuing my existential crisis until we entered the huge doors of the building. She flew down to the ground and let me stand on the floors as her cloud horse, which I hadn't noticed until then, flew away. She spoke to two huge burly guys standing behind a weird desk of sorts that was made from a longboat. They looked past her shoulder at me, seeming to judge my height and stature and build. I looked down and scowled, pulling at my disgusting bloodstained clothes. Well, ghost-blood. I was dead, so my body's natural, biological responses to being stabbed didn't apply anymore. (I didn't know whether or not to be upset about that.) Maybe that's why they were judging me. I was covered in ghost blood.

Samirah motioned me over, and I walked closer, standing as far from the huge dudes as I could while still standing near the Valkyrie. "So, what are we thinking? Magnus' floor? She could use some positive energy, right? And sunshine boy has plenty of that."

One of the guys, some dude whose name tag read Helgi, agreed in a gruff voice. "I mean, sure. She's his responsibility from there. I'm sick of babysitting these idiot teens. Hunding, remember how smart people their age were at our time? So mature and responsible and smart."

The guy beside him, Hunding, responded in an equally gruff tone. "Of course. We were raised well. Well, kind of. At least we had real work to do and not homework and papers to write. These children have it so easy nowadays. They are never physically or mentally challenged by their tasks. Unfortunately. Were it up to me, all of them would be doing real physical labor, working with complex ideas about infrastructure, and taking care of their families by themselves." I grinned. Perfect opportunity to show up another old, dumb person.

"And what the hell do you think we've been doing? Sure, we don't do as much physical labor as you guys did, but we're doing way more mentally challenging stuff. Like, could you explain to me how the cellular processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration act as energy-coupled reactions that allow the photosynthetic organisms themselves and the secondary producers that consume them to live and adhere to the five aspects of life?" At their silent, confused, annoyed expressions, I claimed my victory. "Exactly. That's what I thought. So don't ever call our generation mentally unstimulated because seriously, we're doing harder stuff in this decade than humanity has had to do in the last few millennia of its existence."

Samirah snickered behind her hand as the two men grunted and shuffled in their spots, crossing their arms as beady little eyes glowered down at me with extreme distaste. "She definitely belongs with Magnus and his dumb crew. She's a real smart-ass. Real annoying too." The Valkyrie nodded, still chuckling secretly as she pulled me away from the desk, the key to some room clutched in her hand.

"That was funny. Not as funny as my half-sibling, but almost."

I pretended to bow deeply in appreciation of her praise, which made her roll her eyes again as the pulling resumed.

We walked through a bunch of huge hallways towards a set of elevators. We got onto the one that just reached this floor. The doors closed behind me as Samirah pushed a button to the nineteenth floor. I stared at the numerous buttons lining the wall of the elevator. "These guys are a bit much. Five-hundred and forty floors?"

She shrugged. "Gotta make space. We have a lot of warriors here. And there has to be enough doors to the Nine Worlds so the einherjar can get to the warzone efficiently. Hard to cram thousands of warriors into three elevators, ya know?"

"Fair enough." I smiled widely when Virelai's song, 'Nøkken' hit my ears. They're an amazing Danish folk group that sings all kinds of songs around Europe. I found them via YouTube, but their music is amazing wherever it's performed. I hummed along with the song and beamed at seeing Samirah tap her feet along with the beat. She looked at me in slight surprise. I shrugged my shoulders, winking playfully. "There's a lot about me that you don't know, sweetheart. I am an enigma of- WHOA!"

The teen laughed hard at my demise, smirking when I fell over after the elevator stopped suddenly. I glowered up at her from the floor. "Jerk."

She snorted and pulled me up, lugging me behind her as she stormed down the hall. "Shush. This is me being nice. If I really hated you, you'd have been dead for an hour by now."

I didn't let her see, but I swallowed a little. I decided to leave that threat remain a threat and accepted her mercy. She was definitely capable of whooping my ass. Girl had the muscles to prove it.

Samirah led me up to a room with my name on it. She handed me the key, which was actually a granite, domino-sized block with a weird symbol on it. It looked like a very pointy infinity symbol. Kinda cool.

"This is your key to your room. Touch the runestone to the door and it'll open."

I gazed at the beautiful cherrywood door with my name engraved in golden letters:

Pushpa Raghav

And below that was this sign:

ᛞ

I touched the key to the door and the symbol glowed green. When the door flew open like it was being shoved by some unseen force, I jumped back, almost crashing into Samirah. "Sorry! That just-"

She snickered. "I know. Just go in. I'll come get you later. Better yet? I'll tell your idiot floormates to visit, okay?"

I nodded my head and walked into the room, my eyes still following her helmet as she walked down to one of the other doors. I wanted to call out for her to stay so I could go into the room with some kind of support, but I knew she wouldn't do that. She wouldn't stay with me just so I could go into _my own room_ with me because I was scared. Besides, what would I do once I had to come back here again? I had to go in alone. I had to at least try to be brave for my own sake.

So, I buried whatever fears, heartbreak, and weakness threatened to spill through my heart, lips, and eyes, and walked inside.

I couldn't breathe.

Imagine the presidential suite of the best hotel in existence. And then make that twenty times better. That's what this room was. It felt like that part in Princess Diaries when Anne Hathaway was walking through her new room and closet and stuff and was exploring the wealth and crazy awesomeness throughout. That was me for a solid ten minutes. I was so scared to touch anything because my brain thought it a mirage that would crumble if I dared to lay a hand on any of the items in the room. First order of business? Clothes. I refused to look like refuse in this fancy-ass place. So, I searched for the closet/wardrobe/clothes thing that was available to me. That took another ten minutes because I got lost four times trying to find that thing.

I pulled it open after finding it, only to see a bunch of different types of clothes of my favorite colors and styles. I grabbed a pair of skinny jeans, a graphic T-shirt with a snarky message on it, a matching plaid button-down, and some underwear. I rushed into the bathroom to strip down and wash myself.

I screamed in the hot shower.

It wasn't even that hot, but there were no words for how much the heat burned my skin. I turned it down to the lowest heat that I could feel without dying and washed myself thoroughly, rubbing off the scum and dirt and blood and grossness that came with being stabbed to death.

Do any of you watch those "Satisfying Video Compilations" on YouTube? Because I do. And the seeing all the dried blood and dirt flow into the drain off my skin was more satisfying than any of those compilations. No matter what anyone says.

Eventually, I climbed out of the shower feeling cleaner than a newborn's soul. It was glorious. I felt like Jesus had wiped away of all my sins, but I was Jesus. I wiped away my own sins. Weird comparison, I know. The bathroom was huge, by the way. Imagine a master bedroom in a half-mil house in the South. Fairly large, big space, nice windows and decoration and quite the view, right? The bathroom was that master bedroom, but with a huge five-foot-diameter jacuzzi tub, a rain shower covering two and a half square yards, multiple couches, several dressers, and a fairly large sink with cupboards and drawers underneath. There were also many different hooks and hanging storage options in the closet. The floor was mostly granite tiles around the water-susceptible areas with plush emerald carpet everywhere else. The walls glowed with gorgeous images of different biomes all over the world. Lush rainforests, icy tundras, burning deserts, wintry taigas, just to name a few.

I dried myself off with one of the nice white towels I found folded on the sink, and immediately after, pulled on my clothes with anxiety buzzing around in my bones.

I hurried out of the bathroom, hanging the towel on a convenient towel rack that stood beside the bathroom door. As soon as I was finished adjusting it (I would have lost my mind if it wasn't perfectly hung on the rod), someone knocked on my door. Since it got wet despite me tying it up before my shower, my hair was released from its scrunchie prison. I walked to the door and opened it, pulling it inwards like I remembered. Behind the door stood a blond-haired angelic man with nice gray eyes. I have to admit, I was close to shitting myself because he looked like he could kill me with just a look. He grinned and held out his hand. "Magnus Chase. Sam made me come and say hello. With a threat, but you know how that is."

I hesitantly, my hand quaking violently, shook his hand. It was strong, warm, as if he were made of sunlight and joy itself. He looked at me in amusement. "Are you scared of me?"

My lips didn't move until a moment later. "Y-Yeah. Um. You look like blond Jesus. What am I supposed to feel? Excited? Last I checked, people are scared of Jesus coming back, not happy."

He laughed and ran his fingers through his hair after pulling back his hand. "Don't let Alex hear you call me that. They won't leave it for a month. Evil creature, that one." Magnus crossed his arms and stepped aside, tilting his head towards his left side in a 'come hither' kind of gesture. Not wanting to disappoint or anger him, I quietly followed along after him, making sure the key was in my pocket before closing the door behind me. "So. New kid that died today?"

"How could you tell?"

Blond Jesus winked and snorted, walking slowly with me. "You're shivering like it's ten degrees in here. Chill out, man. Haha! See what I did there?"

I laughed and nodded, letting go of some of my nervous energy. "That was so bad. If Samirah heard that, she'd hit you."

"She already did. I said it one time around her boyfriend, and I believe her threat was, 'If you say that when Amir is around me ever again, I'll kill you, bring you back, and kill you again. Got it?' Safe to say, I didn't walk within five feet of her for the rest of the week."

I laughed a bit more. This guy was fucking great. I couldn't understand why I was so terrified of him originally, but then I remembered the feeling of his power. It radiated off of him like he was the Sun. Makes sense why it was so nice to be near him, but so scary as well. "So who's your dad?"

Magnus rubbed his face and smiled tiredly down at me. "Frey. God of Peace, Fertility, and the Seasons."

"Of course you are, Sunshine Boy. Sorry, sorry! Don't kill me, man! That's what Samirah called you!"

"Of course she did. You know your parent?"

I frowned and hugged my button-down tighter around me, shuffling my feet to get myself comfortable in the new shoes I was wearing. "No. I don't even know if I belong here. I didn't want to be. I just wanna go back to my family."

Magnus sighed wistfully, looking away into the distance with a sad gaze. "I know the feeling. When I first got here, I was so scared and sad. I lost my mom recently, and I couldn't mourn her properly after that because we were always on the run. Probably from those Norse monsters that want to kill me constantly. I only had my friends to rely on, and they were a huge help. Don't worry. You'll be fine here. And honestly, Sam's choices are never wrong. She brought you here, so you're probably meant to be here."

I shook my head and rubbed away the tears threatening to spill over my eyes. "No, Magnus. My family is my group of friends from high school. They're the only ones I can say that I truly love. My real family ditched me because I didn't fit in with their idea of a perfect Indian girl. Atheist, bisexual, independent. That's not what they liked, so they left. My foster parents are nice and the kids aren't too bad, but they don't love me. I know that. The kids only need me to make them food. The adults just need me to take care of the kids and keep them in line. I just am not a necessity in that home. My friends are the only ones that stuck with me from day one until day of the dead. I want them. Not anyone else. I wish I had someone else to go to, but I'm stuck here. I hoped I would at least be able to die peacefully without knowing I'd still have to do shit after life, but here I am. I don't want to fight in a war. I don't want to fight giant Norse monsters. I just want to sleep forever."

During my long, exhausting tirade, I had stopped walking to focus more on my words. At this point, my face was completely red and streaked with tears. I wasn't ugly crying, but I was so close to that. Magnus, like the angel he is, reached out and pulled me into a hug, rubbing my back gently. He felt like joy and nature and love and _life itself_ , and I admit I kinda wanted to die like that, finally at peace with my own uncontrollable thoughts.

Too soon, he pulled away and looked at me with a kind, warm smile. I wanted to melt into my shoes, that's how amazing I felt. "No matter if you're alive or dead, they're still your friends. And if you want, we'll figure out some way to tell them how you're doing. Alright? I promise. It's hard being here with no one. But floor nineteen always is here. Even though the others didn't come out to say hey, we're here to help."

I rubbed away my tears and nodded, closing my eyes for a moment. I reopened them and tried my hardest to clear away any sign of a crying spell on my face. "Thanks, Magnus. You're the best."

He winked and patted my shoulder, almost dislocating it. "You know it. Come on. I think everyone's ready for dinner. The others will be down in a bit."

We got onto the elevator, Magnus hitting the button for the first floor again.

I want to say we rode in silence, but we didn't. I sang along with the elevator music again, which had Magnus beaming like an idiot. I know, I know. I realize that I just had that huge hero-worship moment a little while ago, but he really was smiling so weirdly and annoyingly, it was getting on my nerves. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I squinted at him and crossed my arms. "What are you smiling at?"

He shook his head, laughing. "Nothing. You have a nice voice. I was thinking, maybe you're the child of Bragi? God of music and stuff, I think. I hear he's super cool."

"Maybe? I'm not that talented, though. And I would say my literary ability is slightly above average. Nothing that would merit godly parentage."

"I dunno, that sounded pretty literary to me."

"That's because you probably read at a second grade level, dude. Don't look at me."

He inhaled with a hiss, snickering at my jab. "Oooh. What would Alex say about this?"

We stepped out of the elevator and came into contact with a pink and green person. Okay, so the person wasn't literally pink and green, but that was their style. Pink and green checkered vest with green skinny jeans and pink vans. The person had really fluffy pink hair and heterochromia. But their facial features were very non-distinct, almost both genders at the same time. Before I could ask them any questions, Cosmo-and-Wanda grinned at Magnus and moved in, hugging Blond Jesus tightly. Magnus hummed and pulled back, rubbing the person's back as they gazed at each other with intimate affection. I stepped a few paces back and looked around, trying to not feel like I walked into these two fucking on the elevator.

They talked for a bit before Cosmo-and-Wanda stepped away from Magnus. Blond Jesus blushed pink like a schoolboy, lacing fingers with their obvious partner. "Sorry. This is Alex Fierro, my partner. Alex, this is… uh…"

I smiled nervously and scratched the back of my neck, squinting at Magnus. "Didn't even ask my name. Rude. Pushpa. Or just call me Flo."

He quickly shook his head and stared at me, an eyebrow raised. "That nickname makes so much sense."

"Thanks. Pushpa means flower in Sanskrit. Well, in most Indian languages. So, I asked people to call me Flower instead. Because you know, kids be assholes and making fun of everyone's name. Flower worked, but it was too long. So I changed it to Flo."

Alex snickered behind their hand. "Flo from Progressive?"

I grinned and high-fived them, my face almost tearing in half from the sudden bond we shared because of our humor. "You're a deity among foolish mortals."

Alex looked at Magnus with a smirk. "Why can't you call me stuff like that?"

My poor buddy looked exasperated with both of us. "Because I know you're not a deity, you're a dumbass, and-"

"Says the dumbass, babe."

Magnus scowled deeper. "I hate you sometimes."

"Lies. All lies."

I laughed and leaned against the wall for some support. "You guys are adorable."

Alex looked at Magnus with that lovey-dovey expression again. "Magnus, she's perfect. Get out of my life."

Magnus looked so offended, I was going to die of laughter. I think I did for a second there. Alex beamed and pulled me up off the floor, an arm around my shoulders. "Nice to meet you, Flo. Name's Alex."

I looked at them and raised an eyebrow hopefully. "Non-binary?"

"Yep."

"I know you have your real name and shit, but can I call you Alex Fieri?"

Alex looked at Magnus with another grin. "Fucking awesome. This one's great, Magnus. She better stay on our floor."

Magnus threw his arms up and walked away, complaining about both of us the entire time he walked to his table. Alex just winked at me, smirking devilishly. "So, tiny."

"I'm five-foot-four, dude. Not that tiny."

"Tiny to me. Shhh. So who's your parent?"

I sighed and shrugged. "No idea."

"Ooooh! Mysterious, I like it! We'll figure out who it is. Don't worry."

I pouted, pulling my hair up into a cascade braid to keep it out of my face and to keep my hands occupied. "Worrying is literally in my DNA, guys. Can't avoid it. Anyways, enough talk about my existence, how about yours? Who's your parent?"

Alex bit their lip and squeezed my shoulder a moment before letting go. "Loki."

I nodded. "And you don't like that because he's going to bring about Ragnarok and destroy everything?"

They looked at me and rolled their eyes, sarcastically exclaiming, "No! Of course not! I just hate that he's such a prankster!"

My hands flew up in surrender, and I tried to smile as gently as possible. "Hey, hey, it's okay. Look, I know you're upset. You have every right to be. I just…I can't help but feel some remorse for the guy. I can't excuse him being a total jerk, but I can't ignore the stuff he's gone through. Lost his kids to his own king. Four of them. I mean, that's harsh. You gotta admit at least that, right?"

"So because he's a victim he gets to be an asshole?"

"Not what I said, _preciose_. I'm saying that he can't be completely blamed for everything. Taking away someone's kids takes a toll on them. I can't say I know exactly how that feels, but I at least know that it breaks a person's mind. Loki's actions are partly by circumstance and partly by his choices."

They huffed and looked straight ahead, eyes colder now than before. I rested a hand on their shoulder. "Alex. You can still understand a person and denounce their actions and behavior. There's nothing wrong with that. Frankly, that's superior to just hating on someone because you can."

"Hard to let go of grudges, Flo. Real hard. Loki's done some unforgivable things. He's going to destroy everything. You can't put out the flames this time."

I sighed and shrugged, tucking my hands into my pockets. "Well, all of my words are coming from a proud pacifist. If I can, I want to avoid war, buddy. I hate the idea of war. No one should _have_ to fight for any reason at all."

"So what are you gonna do? You can't avoid this one."

"I'll do something. Anything. Alex, I don't believe in war. It's not a necessary fact of life. You all are here to fight, and if it comes to it, you'd give your lives to end Ragnarok. I'd give my life to keep peace. To prevent Ragnarok. That's what I believe in. And I'll be damned if I won't try some outlandish bullshit to stop Ragnarok altogether. Sure, the Fates tell us our destiny, but I don't believe in that shit. I make my own destiny, and if no one's coming with me, I'll do it myself, for the better of everyone else."

Alex softened as I explained my thoughts. They patted my shoulder and chuckled, punching it playfully. "Either you're a kid of Frey, the kid of Thor, or the kid of some good fucking parents. Because that was a good speech, girl."

I giggled and bumped shoulders with them, looking away shyly when Alex sat with Magnus again and began flirting once more. A few others joined the table. A huge, muscular dude that looked like he actually ate nails for breakfast sat beside Magnus and set his war-ax on the ground. A redhead girl who looked like she could shatter reality itself with nothing but her glare sat beside Alex. A cute as hell African-American guy who carried an old musket with him sat beside me. Two others joined the table, an older African-American who looked a bit short for his muscular build, and a tree of a man, very pale and very soft-looking. They sat down close together, shoulders and hands brushing.

Magnus grinned and greeted all of his other tablemates. "Hey, guys. We have a new kid on the floor. Flo, wanna introduce yourself?"

I bit my lip nervously and looked at the golden god for some reassurance. He just grinned at me and nodded. I turned to everyone and waved, feeling my entire body shiver as if it were cold. "H-Hey, guys. Um. I'm Pushpa Raghav, but you guys can call me Flo. Yes, like Flo from Progressive. Born in India, raised in the States. Trilingual-ish. Um. I came in today. That's pretty much it. I have two human parents, so I don't know if that works? But uh. Yeah."

The kid with the musket held out his hand with a bright smile. God, he was adorable. "Thomas Jefferson, Jr. Nice to meet you! My dad is Tyr, God of War." I shook his hand and almost felt him shatter some bones when I pulled back too quickly. The guy beside Magnus patted my shoulder and almost dislocated it again.

"Halfborn Gunderson. Viking." I smiled as friendly as I could, but with the pain blooming throughout my arm, it was hard.

I raised an eyebrow at his name. "Seems kinda mean. Calling you half-born. They called you a monster?"

He grinned and shrugged his massive shoulders, winking at me. "Meh. They tried. But they're unimportant, and I'm a warrior in Valhalla. Who really lost?"

"Touché."

The girl behind Thomas Jefferson, Jr. smiled and shook my hand. "Mallory Keen. Daughter of Frigg."

I beamed and shook her hand back, almost glowing at seeing the smile on her pretty face. "Clearly. Prettiest one here."

Magnus huffed and Halfborn snorted loudly. "I'm the prettiest one here," grumbled the son of Frey.

"Don't be a little bitch, Magnus. And don't lie to yourself."

Everyone at the table 'OOOOHHHHH'd like a bunch of high-school assholes, which was fun. Alex fell off their chair from laughing too hard. "GET FUCKIN' WRECKED, MANGO."

I laughed too, dying at the nickname. "MANGO?!"

Eventually, we calmed down. And by we, I mean everyone except the guys who showed up last. They weren't laughing at all. The African-American man grinned and shook my hand. "Blitzen. Son of Freya. This is Hearthstone. He speaks ASL, Alf Sign Language. Deaf-mute. I'll translate for you."

I grinned. "For the complicated stuff." I turned to Hearthstone and waved. He smiled shyly and waved back. I began signing what bit of normal American Sign Language that I knew.

 _My name is P-U-S-H-P-A o-r F-L-O._

Hearthstone smiled a tiny bit more, signing back a _Hello! My name is H-E-A-R-T-H-S-T-O-N-E._ Blitzen stepped in and translated the next bit for Hearthstone. "You can also call me Hearth. You have a beautiful name. Pushpa is prettier than Flo."

I giggled and signed back, _Thank you, Hearth._

Hearthstone was smiling and signing secretly to Blitzen, his eyes bright and hand motions really frantic. My smile melted, and I thought I'd offended them, but then I realized that the two were actually happy.

Magnus followed my line of sight with a smile and chuckle. I heard him laugh and quickly turned to look at him. "Hearth is happy that someone besides just me and Blitz knows ASL. You said you're trilingual, right? Maybe you wanna learn ASL? So you can understand him better?"

I nodded. "I don't mind learning another one. I was in the process of learning Danish, but dying gets in the way of that, so it sucks."

"I can teach you some if you want."

"Sure! If I'm even staying, that is."

Just as Magnus was opening his mouth to continue the conversation, everyone was called to attention, and the newcomers were asked to sit at a different table. I frowned, seeing my hands shaking pathetically, violently. Magnus walked to me and gripped my hands in both of his, looking seriously at my face. His expression softened when he saw how hard I was clinging onto his hands as well. He smiled warmly, and I felt light and heat and love envelop me like a nice blanket, keeping out the dark thoughts. He spoke softly in my ear. "I'm the son of a god whose main job is maintaining seasons. You're feeling under the weather, Flo. Just relax. Accept the light. You'll be alright." He let go after a few seconds, and I mustered enough strength to stand and walk to the newbies' table on my own. Everyone there looked just as scared as I was. One guy was literally crying.

My maternal instincts flared up at the sight of tears, and I couldn't stop myself from comforting this stranger. Almost immediately, I found myself sitting at his side, trying to help him calm down. I had a hand on his shoulder and another on his face, making him look up at me. I felt my breath stop in my throat. He was angelic. That was my least favorite part about this place. Everyone was fucking beautiful.

This crying angel, despite his ugly tears, was so perfect. His hair was a weird silvery-gray, making me think he dyed it for the Instagram likes. His eyes were a deep, endless ocean blue. In fact, that's a lie. They kept changing to different shades of blue, like the Atlantic itself was in his eyes. His skin was icy white, as if he was born in the snow. (That last idea made me think of frostbite, and my brain shut down to turn off that train of thought.) He was built like the traditional Germanic, manly man. Tall, strong stature, just enough muscle to not look like he shoots steroids every Friday night. Even his facial features were perfect. Everything was chiselled to a curved point. Beautiful man. More than anything I'd ever seen before.

He sniffled and rubbed at his face, still shaking from his sobs. I cooed gently and petted his hair, marvelling at the fluffy texture. He leaned into my hand and mumbled soft apologies. "Hey, hey, honey, it's okay. It's alright. I know you're scared. We all are. It's just how things are here. You'll be okay. Hey, if you're going to Helheim, you'd best believe I'll go with you. We're in it together, okay?"

I heard the beginnings of that musical theatre song about high school drama coming from across the room and glared it down immediately, squinting as hatefully as I could at that person.

This poor, crying man did not need that right now. Okay, fine. He wasn't exactly a man, but he was still crying. This crying teenager needed emotional support.

The guy calmed down after a few minutes and smiled at me sweetly, eyes almost glowing with joy when he had gotten out his last few tears. "Spasiba. Not common that I cry like this in public," he told me honestly. I cried internally when I heardhis beautifully deep voice. He had such a mesmerizing tambour to his tone that had me melting into my shoes. Even his accent was gorgeous. It had a fairly heavy Russian accent, with all of its curling R's and looping L's.

In an attempt to snap myself out of my stupor, I rolled my shoulders and sat back more comfortably, resting my hands on my lap. "Everyone's got their reasons for crying. None of us are in the position to judge you."

He held out his hand to me as he laughed. "Alexei Volka Lagunov. A pleasure. You are?"

I yelped when I realized that everyone was becoming silent. I looked around and saw some old guys standing up to introduce themselves to us newbies. Alexei whined a little and poked my arm to make me shake his hand. I shushed him, to which he huffed childishly and swore in my ear that he'd figure out my name eventually. I admit, it was kinda hot.

There were only three others at the table besides Alexei and I, so the chances were high that I'd get picked out among the five of us to talk first or whatever. Why? I was the only brown person in the entire group.

"We extend a warm welcome to our new warriors and hope to soon see their accomplishments. First warrior! Helga Schmidt! Let us see your achievement!"

A screen showed up kinda out of nowhere and a video of the blonde girl at the table, Helga, began to play. She was in an alleyway, fighting some kind of armed robber guy. Only after a few minutes of the showdown did all of us in the audience realize that there was a naked girl shivering behind her in what was likely Helga's jacket. A rape case…harsh. But very valiant for Helga to save that girl. She didn't have a weapon in her hand most of the time, only threatening the rapist with pepper spray, but at the last minute, she grabbed an old rusted knife from the floor next to the brick wall and stabbed the guy with it a bunch of times, only for him to shoot her in the stomach as a last minute effort to take her down with him.

Everyone in the audience clapped at the end of the video, but the girl wasn't feeling the love.

Helga looked around nervously, eyes avoiding everyone else's. We locked eyes for only but a moment. "Helga Schmidt, do you know your parentage?" came the question from one of the old guys. I think I even spotted Davy Crockett at the old guys' table.

The girl nodded shyly. "Tyr… God of War?"

Everyone beat their weapons onto the floors or tables or their hands in loud approval.

"Fight well, Helga, and you will be honored in the highest! You are blessed by your father's power and wit! Destroy your enemies and from that comes your honor! Tomorrow, your powerful hands will be cut off as a show of your strength!" Helga looked woozy, almost turning green at the thought. I reached across the table to her. She at first ignored me, but grasped my hand after a few seconds, looking at me desperately. I smiled as reassuring-ly as I could, rubbing her knuckles in a gentle manner. "It's okay, honey. It's alright. Just relax."

The old guy seemed to really dislike my kindness and gentle disposition, so he announced in that annoying tone that I would be next. "Pushpa Raghav! Strange to see an Indian among us after so many years. You shall be seen next! What were your achievements?"

I winced, whipping my head towards the screen in horror. I saw myself and nearly cried at the sight of my old school. I held in my sobs and looked down so no one would see. I'd already embarrassed myself enough today by showing affection and being compassionate, the opposite of what these guys did. I couldn't do that to myself again.

My curiosity outweighed my fear, so I peeked at the screen through my fingers, staring on quietly as the events of my death were replayed. This time, it was from a third-person point of view.

I saw myself get dragged out of my classroom. What I didn't see then was visible now. Some of my classmates, even my teacher, reached out for me as I was being pulled away. I came into the hallway, and the rage turned on. I saw an ugly version of myself. I saw a me where I was so much more angry than I ever thought possible. I saw my hands move like I remembered from those self-defense lessons in karate. I saw my hand grab the back of the guy's head and sneer something in his face. I saw my arm smash his head into the wall so many times that by the end of it, his skull was imploded. I felt bile rise in my throat. I felt my hands start to shake. I wanted to stop watching, but I couldn't. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. I saw my hand grab at his collar and drag him out to the main entrance of the school with a gun in my hand. I saw where all of the police officers were waiting to see if the intruders would come out. Again, I saw something now that I didn't notice before: the offices' staff's horrified expressions at seeing me get stabbed by the guy's accomplice, who attacked from behind. I saw some of the staff scream and cry and reach for me through the doors, too scared to move any closer or exit the safety of their offices.

I saw myself fall against the wall, and all my friends came to surround me. I saw some of them fall asleep with their heads on my lap as my last breath left my body. I saw them screaming and crying and pounding their fists into the walls as I passed. I saw them raging at everyone because no one stopped me from doing what I did, because no one stopped those intruders from doing what they did.

I then saw spots in my vision as my heart pounded, and as my ears deafened. Alexei grasped me in a hug, trying his hardest to keep me grounded. I felt myself cry into his shoulder as everyone cheered me on for my destruction of that guy. They enjoyed the violence. I wanted to kill myself for ever doing that to another human. Alexei seemed to understand. He pressed my face into his neck and kissed my head awkwardly, as if he'd never done this before.

I pulled back quickly, thanking him with a smile as I tried to keep down my tears and pathetic-ness. I couldn't keep embarrassing myself.

The old guys seemed to approve of my methods. "A gun in her hand as she died. Not the most preferable weapon, but a good one nonetheless," commented Helgi.

"Do you know your parentage?" asked the old guy who'd been announcing everything up until now.

"No, sir, I do not," I called out over my tearful voice. The old guys preened a little at the respect. I couldn't help it. I reverted to my meek, Southern-raised, Indian-grown self when scared of authority figures.

"Will the Vala please come forth and tell us this one's parentage?"

An old lady came towards me and watched my face curiously. She held in her hand a bunch of stones, like the key-card to my room. I hoped she wasn't giving me another room just to tell me my parent. I liked my room.

She mumbled something under her breath and threw the stones onto the ground. Some were face down, some were face up. One began to glow brightly, sending red and blue magic around the room in coils of light. A holographic image grew from the stone. It looked like a broken F.

ᚠ

Everyone seemed really upset about that. The old guy huffed and nodded, relenting to fate, I guess. "Frey! Another child of Frey! Child, I do not understand your parentage, nor your past. But you are welcomed by Valhalla. You are one of the einherjar, no matter the confusion surrounding your lineage. Your actions do not mirror that of a warrior, but a healer. A protector of the good, not a fighter of the evil. Nonetheless, you are accepted and blessed. Tomorrow, you will be blunted in honor of your past and future victory over your enemies. Blessed be Frey!"

I locked eyes with Magnus, who frowned like I did. We agreed to speak about this further after this dinner and stuff. What the hell was going on?

Alexei looked at me with a peculiar smile. "Only the God of Summer would go to India for some fun."

Despite the terror in my soul and the confusion in my mind, I still laughed at his little jokes.

He smiled at my joy and shared it with me for the few moments before he held onto my hand for his own comfort when his time came. I didn't know how to react after seeing the video. It truly was a show of how horrible people can be.

Alexei didn't let go of my hand long after the video had ended. I couldn't blame him. I needed his hand too. It was insane, seeing him go through that. Pretty much, Alexei had been living as an orphan and possible recruit for the Russian military, but he couldn't leave his little sister to fend for herself as he left for training. One of the officers who knew him from when Alexei was working as an errand-boy in Kazan promised to take care of Alexei's sister while he left for training. The poor guy came back home to find the officer raping his sister. In an understable blind rage, he brutally murdered the officer, only for the officer's superiors to come after Alexei to kill him for that officer's death. Alexei fought bravely, but the others outnumbered him twelve to one and he got shot to death.

I still had a hard time processing the idea of those jackasses defending a man who raped a thirteen-year-old girl. I wondered if they maybe had judged Alexei too quickly, but he explained that they knew about the rapes and some of them participated in it too, taking advantage of his sister whenever they liked. He caught up on the news in Russia as soon as he got into his room, so he could check up on his sister. He was heartbroken to hear that the other officers hurt his sister too, but was overjoyed that the whole lot of them were getting life in prison for raping a minor.

Dinner began a few minutes later. I walked back to Floor Nineteen's table, Alexei and I still gripping onto each other's hands for comfort. He smiled at the others nervously. "H-Hi, I'm… uh…"

That pulled a laugh out of me for some reason. Alexei pouted at that, but smiled still.

Alex Fieri scowled. "Two Alex's at the same table? It's more likely than you think."

We all _howled_.

Alexei shrugged. "As a Russian man, I have many nicknames. Pick of them what you will."

I smirked, poking his cheek with my free hand. "How about Alyoshenka?"

He looked at me, a strong eyebrow raised in confusion. "You speak Russian?"

"Just a little, lyubov." I winked at him, and he flushed a delightful scarlet.

"I hate you."

"Then let go of my hand, Alyoshenka."

"No."

"Stupid."

"Says the girl who gets a crush on a guy she met five minutes ago."

I smiled calmly and punched him in the throat. "Crush? More like crush your throat!"

I high-fived Halfborn, who laughed so hard, I think one of his lungs exploded.

Hearth was snorting into his scarf while Blitzen rubbed his temples in irritation, scowling at us like we were a bunch of stupid kids, which we were. "Why must I be here?"

"Because you want to be, Blitz. Don't lie," teased Magnus. This made the short man huff and roll his eyes.

"Unfortunately." He looked back at Hearth, who giggled and signed something to his boyfriend excitedly. Blitzen laughed and nodded, leaning in to pat Hearth's back. "Whatever you say, buddy. Magnus, you gonna ask more about your new sister? Don't exclude her."

Magnus threw his arms up in exasperation. "What are we even doing here? Is today Hate on Magnus Day?!"

"Yes," came Alex's cocky response. Magnus glared at his partner, but shut his mouth before turning to me.

"You wanna tell us something? How come your parents are human but the Vala just said you're a child of Frey?" he pointed out. I couldn't think of a response quickly. So, I scoured through my memories to see if there was any possible indication of me having a godly parent.

I couldn't think of anything, except one instance in elementary school. I had been living in Georgia for more than ten years at that point, and I'm Indian, so I'm used to the heat. One day, it was really hot. As in, the teachers forced us to put on sunscreen before leaving the building so none of us would get hurt. We had Field Day, so everyone was around playing games and stuff. I was playing some game with one of my best friends in school, some kind of ring toss or something. We won the game and high-fived hard because we were so excited and happy to win. My friend screamed in extreme pain after the high-five. I couldn't understand why she was screaming so loud. The slap of our palms hurt my hand too, but not that bad. A moment later, I smelled what I now recognize as burning flesh. The girl showed me her hands, crying like a newborn. They were burned badly. I screamed loudly and pulled her by her shoulders to go get the teacher. The poor girl had to go to the hospital. None of us could understand why she was injured like that. It remained a mystery for so many years.

She later told me in middle school that she thought it was me burning her. I couldn't understand that. She stopped being my friend in the December of seventh grade.

I explained this entire set of memories and ideas to my new friends and waited for their reactions. Blitzen pursed his lips and thought to himself quietly. Magnus frowned and looked at my hands, examining them with a careful eye. Mallory even checked out my hands to see if they could tell her anything. Hearth started signing frantically at Magnus, the blond teen only responding to the hand motions with little nods and hums of agreement. After they were done talking, Magnus told me what Hearth had hypothesized.

"Hearth is saying he thinks that hand-burning might be because of fire magic or something like that. Frey is the God of peace and good weather. My powers are kind of like that too. The healing, middle-man, balanced kind of stuff. Stuff that implies peace and centering. Maybe you're the opposite. You already have a pretty volatile emotional state. That probably is because of your powers. Maybe they're like fire and ice or something? Like, if I'm the moderate middle, you're the severe extremes of the spectrum. That could explain why your friend got burned. Your hands caught fire or heated up severely, and her skin got damaged. I haven't seen the ice stuff yet, but that's a possibility. Remember, this is all just a hypothesis. We don't know any of this for sure."

My hands rubbed together to try and rid themselves of the cold in the vast space of the dining area. "If so, then why do I have two human parents?"

Magnus shrugged. "My cousin's boyfriend, Percy Jackson had a situation like that. His mom was human, his dad was Poseidon, Greek God of the Ocean. His mom married this ugly troll of a guy that was so repulsive and smelly that his mere existence in the home masked Percy's demigod scent from monsters. Maybe Frey did that to you? Kept you hidden away with a human family so you'd be hidden."

"Yeah, well, my childhood biological mom only married my childhood biological dad. She never had sex out of marriage. No Indian woman of her age or upbringing would. She definitely wasn't my real mother, then."

"Well, maybe your mom is just out there, waiting for you to come back. The gods are kinda dumb and illogical sometimes, but they generally do want the best for their kids."

I shrugged, wiping my hands down my face to clear my thoughts and refocus. "Just tell me what happens now. I'll worry about family and shit later."

He grinned. "Now? We eat dinner."


	3. Chapter 3: Loved

I've Never Seen

It was so messy, I felt my hands itching to either organize the entire table or flip it. Ever since I was a kid, I was a bit of an organization freak. If everything in any aspect of my day wasn't organized, I would stop everything, sit down for however much time, and perfectly partition all of my items into the best categories. It was so bad that I would sometimes just reorder my backpack, desk, and room instead of studying. That stuff got worse in high school, when my stress was so high, I'd use organizing as stress relief.

Dinner made my stomach churn and my skin itch. Imagine the first time you saw that scene in Harry Potter when everyone sat down for dinner together at those long tables heaping full of food. It was like that, but a billion times worse. Some kind of huge creature was laid out on a huge rod over a fire pit, and people were tearing off different parts of its flesh before bringing it back to the table. I felt bile rise up in my stomach at the sight and smell of it, which was like the stench of burnt flesh I smelled as a kid when I hurt that friend of mine. I told you the story just now.

So, instead of sitting with my buddies and digging in, I sprinted across the dining area to the trash cans. My hand gripped onto the top of the can and ripped it clean off, swinging doors, plastic sides, and all. And I heaved. And heaved. And heaved. Until my throat burned and my eyes watered. Then I realized the smell of the trash itself, which had me puking still. It stopped after some time, and I sat down on the floor, leaning against it. I soon began to cry like a little bitch, so in shock at the sight of the beast, the experience of vomiting so much that the stomach acid started eating away at my esophageal mucous. Alexei made his way over to check on me. What a precious boy he is. He knelt beside me and raised his open hand high above his head. A Valkyrie dropped a cloth napkin into his palm, and he brought it down to start cleaning up my face, wiping at my mouth with one side and folding it before wiping away my tears with the other side.

He cooed at me in Russian, petting my hair as I cried and blubbered to him about how much this sucked and how much I wanted to go home. Slowly, I relaxed as the crying began to cease from his kind actions and comfort.

I was pulled up gently by my upper arms. Alexei spoke to me softly, eyes becoming strict with a kind of parental concern. "You're okay now?"

Unable to speak any words, I opted to quietly nod my head and thanked him with a hug. He petted my hair and rubbed my back, staying in the hug until I let go of my own volition. Just that little action made me smile wider than I had all day. He was so considerate and emotionally smart, letting me hold on as long as I needed rather than letting go as soon as he got sick of it. We walked back to the table together, his hand resting on my back protectively while I leaned into him imperceptibly.

Magnus looked at me with a kind of pity as I sat down, trying to ignore the giant creature on the table. "Vegetarian? I've never seen such a violent reaction to Saehrimnir. There are vegetarian options, you know."

I covered my mouth and tried to push down any bile that threatened to come back up when the smell of cooking meat reached my nose again. Once I was okay, I responded. "Vegan. As strict as possible. I always ate alone at home since my foster family were heavy meat-eaters. Sometimes, I'd leave for hours around dinner time and only come back home once everyone was asleep, just so I wouldn't have to smell that. This is a million times worse."

Alexei grunted, thanking a pretty, blonde Valkyrie who handed him a plate of food. "And she has her horrible memory of burning her friend's scorched flesh. Doesn't leave her mind in a good place." Magnus' eyes brightened, and he winced, understanding the connection.

"Oh yeah. Sorry. Almost forgot about that. You feel better now after getting your guts out?"

"Meh. Kinda. Half-ass. Better than a few minutes ago. I think I just want some vegetables or some shit. This smell is giving me nausea."

Mallory reached behind Thomas Jefferson, Jr. and handed me a little spray bottle, grinning mischievously at me. "Flowery perfume spray. Not for me. Halfborn smells like he walked through an entire landfill after the practice battles, so I use this around me to make sure I still have a sense of smell for the next morning. Try it out."

I hesitantly spritzed the bottle of perfume around me in a circle and nearly fell over from the relief it brought my nose. "Mallory, you're a fucking godsend. Thank you so much."

She laughed as I just sat there, happily drowning in the smell of roses, lilies, and lotuses that enveloped my being.

Alexei laughed at me too, snickering behind his bread at my extreme joy. "To think, just a second a ago, you looked like a drunk girl puking in the toilet after just getting dumped by her short-term boyfriend. What a change that's occurred."

I ignored him. "Well at least I didn't become a babushka within two seconds of seeing someone cry, Alyoshenka. Don't talk shit if you can't back it up with facts."

Alex absolutely cackled at my words, high-fiving me across the table before shoving Alexei over to make him sit with Magnus so the child of Loki could sit with me. I giggled at my new buddy's offended huffing-and-puffing, and I wiggled my fingers at him to say hello from across the table. He scowled at Alex with a mighty glare. "Listen here, сука. If you ever try to take my spot again, I won't hesitate to-"

Fieri smirked at him and wrapped both arms around my shoulders in a mocking motion, which only served to further rile up the already raging Russian. "Won't hesitate to what? Hurt me? Watch your mouth, Vlad the Impaler. My boyfriend's sitting right next to you."

"Stop that. Don't make me fight for you. Not fair, Alex. I already have to fight for my death. I refuse to fight again."

I laughed aloud, covering my face before winking at my friends. "Yeah, Alex. We don't need another Jodha Akbar in the dining room. Not very civilized."

Samirah smirked over her falafel from her spot at Magnus' left. "You know that movie?"

"Dude, Aishwarya Rai starred in that movie! Who hasn't seen it?! Besides these gringos."

Alex stared at me in slight shock. "Dude."

"What? I can say Latino slang! I learned Spanish for almost ten years. Sure, half of it was in school and the other half was me being best friends with my sixth grade Spanish teacher, but just because I learned school Spanish doesn't mean I don't know street Spanish. Admittedly, though? My BFF taught me all the slang I know. He was the most Italian guy ever, but his dad was Cuban."

She nodded in understanding, patting my shoulder. "And let me guess. You didn't understand what he said half the time?"

"Naturally."

"Sucks for you."

"Yep. He was nice, though. Even with his extreme narcissism."

"Of course he was narcissistic. Cuban _and_ Italian pride? I'm surprised you actually became close with him."

"I was too, dude. He was such a prick, but always took time to at least listen to our problems even if he couldn't help us."

"You sound like you had a crush on him or something."

I gave Alex the most deadpan look I could muster. "No fucking duh. Italian and Cuban. The guy was beautiful. But he was super gay. The King Gay. So I gave up on that and found someone else. Got dumped twice, and now I've decided to be one of the Vestal Virgins so I can disprove the stereotype that female virgins are meek and quiet."

Everyone at the table shut up and shot me expressions that implied they thought I was crazy. They're not wrong.

Alexei raised an eyebrow at me. "You had a crush on a gay man?"

I threw my arms up in exasperation. "He was hot! And I didn't know he was gay until much later into our friendship! What do you want me to do?!"

He moved back, putting his hands up in surrender to try and keep me calm. "Relax. Just asking. Was it odd when you found out he was gay?"

"No, I had a moment where everything clicked into place. It was like, 'THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING!', and then we became closer friends because neither of our families accepted us, so we leaned against each other for support. It was really nice. He was an amazing friend, ya know? Much like you guys, but we bonded so much more strongly. We felt more like family than friends, almost shutting out our actual families in favor of our friendship. He always called me _prima_ or _hermana_ or _baja_. I called him _cabrón_ or _primo_. Sometimes I called him _hermano_. We were super tight. And then I died."

Alex shrugged and bumped shoulders with me. "Sam is the only one I consider family. We share a godly parent."

I whipped my head around to look at Samirah, not believing what I was hearing. She smiled coyly. "It's true. I was going to tell you, but got distracted and interrupted. Loki is my dad, but Alex's mom."

Alex continued. "Yeah. So I get that whole friends-over-family situation. You're welcomed here, though. You are our family now. Whether or not you wanna be. We gotchu, _prima_."

My hands reached over and pulled Alex into a tight hug. They moved away after a few minutes, but only after patting my back.

Hearth knocked on the table to get our attention. He started signing at me furiously, eyes drawn together and lips curved into a frown. Blitzen translated. "You better start eating. They don't always have food ready in your room for you. You can't go to bed hungry. If you try, you won't be able to survive tomorrow's melee."

I groaned, putting my face in my hands.

"If you don't want something from here, you can always ask one of the Valkyries to bring you something," suggested Halfborn. Despite his grizzly build and harsh face, he spoke with such an understanding tone. That actually threw off my groove.

"Um, sure, man. Thanks. Actually. Samirah, can I make myself something?"

She raised an eyebrow at me. "You can just call me Sam. I mean, I think you can cook for yourself. There's no rules against it. But we can always have someone bring it to you, though."

"There's usually a lot of thought that goes into a name. I mean, there's power in a name. I just like to respect others in that way." Samirah smirked at Magnus, punching his arm and making him cry out. She turned back to me. "And I like cooking. It keeps me relaxed, helps me get rid of stress. Please?"

"Sure. Come on. I'll take you."

Alexei, having cleared his plate and sat back in his chair, let out a soft sigh and asked me if he could join. "Uh. Yeah? If you want. When I cook, it gets really messy. You may not want to be there when it does."

Fieri, like an asshole, winked at me, telling Alexei earnestly, "It'll be even messier if you join in. But I don't think she'd mind. If you get my drift."

He flushed pink as a flamingo, and I swore to have revenge on Alex Fierro for ruining my innocence and joy that day. "Prepare to die tomorrow, Alex Fieri. No fucking mercy."

They laughed and clapped a hand down onto my shoulder. "As if. Good luck, Flo from Progressive."

By some miracle, I kept my mouth shut long enough to not get into a fight before I made my dinner and had it too. The kitchen was gorgeous. It had literally everything the world's greatest chefs would ever want, and more. It was the best thing I'd seen since coming to this place. I was a bit concerned about the open flames coming into contact with the wooden walls and stuff, but I was too excited at the prospect of finally being able to make something for myself to dwell on the hazardous conditions of the kitchen. I grabbed a small pot and filled it with water. Pasta cravings started rumblin deep within my soul, and I got to work immediately. A few times, Alexei tried to steal a tomato, but I was able to ward him off with threats to melt him in the oven. He didn't appreciate the Russia-and-its-people-are-cold jokes. Unfortunately.

I walked back out to the dining area where people were still stuffing themselves, with a mountain of penne marinara on a plate in my right hand and a piece of spiced pear galette on the plate in the other hand.

Alexei quickly found his spot beside Magnus again, snickering at the sight of our favorite badass hero with pudding in his hair and mead dripping from his shoulders. "Nice look, Magnus. You have a good time with that?" He only replied with a scowl. "So did Alex give you the makeover or someone else? Nah. It wasn't Alex. They're too creative. This is some elementary school shit. Hey, Mallory, was Magnus' new 'do your idea?"

The redhead snickered, nodding at me with a devilish grin on her freckled face. "Damn right. He called me Merida, I called him Lord Farquaad. And then he called me ugly Ariel, and I changed up his whole style."

"Bro… You're awesome!"

She winked at me and then quickly returned to her conversation with Blitzen about fashionable armor or something like that.

After that, dinner was fairly uneventful affair. Nothing else interesting happened. Alexei and I returned to the new people table and hung out with them a lot. Helga and I argued pretty heavily about our beliefs about war and violence, but Alexei was a calming force at the table. Turned out, his dad was Njörd, the Norse God of the Sea. When he and I were still sitting at the Floor Nineteen table, Magnus teased that Alexei would be best friends with his cousin's boyfriend, Percy Jackson. At first I couldn't place why the name seemed familiar. Only when we sat down at the newbies' table did I realize that Percy Jackson was the kid from the news a few years ago who was the center of a national manhunt.

Alexei seemed oxymoronically both offended and honored by the joke. He responded to Magnus by grumbling in his deep voice, "Perhaps. As long as he doesn't plan on committing any more infamous national crimes. I'd like to stay out of the spotlight, please."

But besides that, not much happened. I felt underwhelmed by the event, having expected some crazy shit from this weird new place.

After dinner, though, Magnus pulled me aside to talk to me in private about my claiming. He seemed terse, stiff, as if the news of my parentage had angered him greatly, more than anything else that happened today. He sat me down on one of the couches in his room and started pacing, rubbing his hands together. His expression didn't reveal anything to me, but the hero was still such a mystery in general. There was only so much about him that I could learn from conversation with him or with others.

He stopped and stood up straight in front of me. "Tell me everything. Your life story. Because I need to know where Frey fits in there and how this entire situation makes any sense." For the son of the god of peace, his voice was pretty intimidating. I found myself shaking in my shoes, unable to respond to him.

Magnus sighed, sitting beside me on the bed, eyes more serious than I'd seen so far. "Look. Flo. I'm not mad at you. I just can't believe my dad would have another kid that he just never mentioned to me. As far as I knew, I was the only child of Frey. He and I have a fairly good relationship for not having met each other until a year ago. Ya know? It's just hard to think that I have a sibling whose existence was never even suggested. Dad isn't cold and distant like other gods. Not from my experience. He loves his kids and partners a lot. I'm thinking that if he didn't mention you to me at all, there's a reason he hid you. And if he didn't hide you, and your parent isn't Frey, then someone made a mistake. You get what I'm saying, right?"

I meekly bobbed my head and kept my hands in my lap, watching him quietly before starting the story.

It took a whole five minutes to tell all the details and major events he wanted to know about. Magnus had sat down beside me, getting comfortable as I got into the nitty gritty of my life story. He frowned most of the time, handsome face contorted into anger at hearing my parents' disowning of me and my foster parents' uncaring disposition. But he never interrupted me, wanting to let me tell the entire story without losing my train of thought.

When the ordeal had ended, Magnus sighed pensively, looking at me with a dark, serious expression. "Flo, did you ever do a DNA test with your parents when you were living with them?"

"No. Why?"

He inhaled deeply for a moment. He stopped and took my hands, squeezing them in his. "It may be possible that Frey left you with your parents and changed their memories to include you. The gods aren't above changing humans for their children's benefit. The Grecian gods do that often, using something called the Mist to manipulate ordinary people's memories to keep them from going crazy when they see demigods doing crazy stuff. Dad could have asked Odin or some other great magic user to change your parents' memories."

"But why…? I didn't know I had powers until recently with that theory about my childhood friend getting burned. Why would he hide me?"

Magnus shrugged his shoulders, smiling at me sadly. "I don't know. Maybe you were unexpected. Maybe you're dangerous. Maybe he wanted to protect your mom. Maybe he thought you were unsafe and needed more human scent to protect you."

"Can't he just tell me himself?"

He pursed his lips and nodded. "But the gods aren't known for being super present parental figures. Frey only ever talked to me by dreams. I don't know if he'll talk to you and if he will, I don't know how."

I sighed, pulling my hands away from his to rub at my face. This entire situation was so annoying and messy. I just wanted to get out of here and not deal with any of this shit. Family's always been a hard aspect of life for me to come to terms with. My real parents didn't want me. My foster parents didn't want me. And now I find out my real parents are fake parents, and I have a godly parent who didn't want me either. It would have been so much easier for me if Samirah left me in Hell or whatever it's called here. This was stupid and difficult and annoying.

I was tempted to ask Magnus if I could just die again or go to Hell, but then I remembered my new friends. I couldn't just leave them now. I know, I only met them today. But it only takes me a few hours to start developing that maternal protective love for people. The new kids to Valhalla were friends to me now, despite any disagreements I may have had with them. I couldn't leave them here like that. If they needed me, and I was in Hell, I would be the one to blame. I can't let them experience that.

"How did you find out about Frey being your dad?"

Magnus grinned, eyes a little less serious. "The Norns came to tell me. It was so dramatic. The Norns are like the Fates of Greek Mythology. They tell the future and stuff. They came and told me my dad is Frey. It was a huge thing. People talked about it for so long after it happened. That's pretty much the only reason I'm somewhat popular around here."

I laughed a bit, imagining Magnus with a look of 'What the fuck is actually happening right now?' on his face just like the rest of the einherjar. "Of course you would have in intro like that. Such a drama queen!"

"Hey, I never asked for it! They just showed up! Not my fault. Just be glad yours wasn't like that too. You would be the butt of every sunshine and summertime joke in Valhalla." He shot me a pout, crossing his arms petulantly, as if he had experienced that exact thing a year ago.

"Just saying, but Samirah calls you Sunshine Boy."

Magnus huffed. "Like everyone else? Yeah. You know what's the worst nickname they've given me? Mango Cheese. Do you know how insulting that is?"

"No. Because your name is awesome. Like, dude, I was in chorus for almost six years between high school and middle school. We learned a song in my sophomore year called 'O Magnum'. I mean, it's about Jesus and stuff, and it's about Mary. I saw you for the first time, and then I heard your name and automatically, you became Blonde Jesus."

He rolled his eyes. "If we really are related, you're a great sister."

"Really? My blood brother said the same thing. Weird."

"The only thing that kid and I share in common is sarcasm, Flo."

I snickered and shrugged, patting his shoulder. "Sure, little bro."

He looked at me curiously, staring at my face really hard. "What year were you born in?"

"Two thousand. I'm a winter baby. December twenty-fifth."

He grinned evilly. "I'm older than you by about five years. Who's little now? Also, you're short."

I glared at him. He glared back. This went on for a full minute before we both conceded defeat. "Fuck you."

"No, that's Alex's job."

"You're a heathen."

"We all are. We're in Valhalla, Flo. How dumb can you be?"

"Not as much as you, clearly."

As he opened his mouth to retort at my teasing, Magnus had to get up and answer the door after someone just knocked on it. "Who is it?"

I leaned over the edge of the bed, trying to peek through the doorway and see who was on the other side. My lips coiled into a painfully bright grin when I heard Alexei's deep Russian drawl slide through the doorway. Before I could understand what was going on, my feet were carrying me to where Magnus was standing in the doorway.

The Son of Frey raised an eyebrow at Alexei, his lips pursed into a serious line as his face stiffened quickly. "What do you want?"

Poor Alexei seemed to pale further and shiver with nervousness at Magnus' stiff behavior. My Russian buddy peeked at me for some kind of comfort and at seeing me smile, continued to talk to Magnus. "I need to talk to Flo. Something important that she needs to hear. I need to borrow her…um, sir."

Magnus chuckled lowly at the other teen calling him 'sir'. "I'm not her dad, Alexei. More like her older brother, honestly. But it's fine. Um. What exactly is this about? You guys aren't going off to do something excessively stupid, right?"

The icy blond shook his head fervently. "No! No! We, um, the new kids. We just wanted to figure out a way to keep in touch. We're on different floors and it would be good to have some friends to talk to when our floormates aren't willing."

"Makes sense. Just don't go out to the big tree outside. If you fall into the nothingness, we can't save you."

"Yes, sir."

"Alexei, stop it. I'm not that old."

I interjected, pushing under Magnus' arm to walk to the other side and greet Alexei. "You were scaring him, asshole. What did you expect would happen? You started off by acting like a dad. Of course he's scared of you and is gonna call you 'sir'."

Magnus rolled his eyes, patting my shoulder goodbye before closing the door in our faces.

Alexei pouted and whined, looking at me kind of desperately. It was an odd thing that he did that because the entire time I'd known him, he always had such a strong, stoic expression. "He's so scary. I hope you're not related to him. For the son of the summer god, he's not relaxed or chill."

"Got that right. So who all is gonna be there?"

"The five of us. You, me, Helga, James, and Gabriella."

I hummed in acknowledgement, quickly falling into a steady silence with the taller teen. We walked to the elevator and waited for it to reach out floor, stepping in without any words between us. Alexei pressed the button to the first floor and leaned his back against the wall of the elevator. He only spoke when the elevator began moving.

"What did Magnus talk to you about?"

My teeth bit down on my lip, chewing restlessly. "He asked me about my life story. He wanted to see if there was any possibility that I was a child of Frey too. He said I might have been placed with my fake-biological family for some odd reason, and someone wiped their memories so I would have always been included in their lives. I dunno. All speculation."

He didn't comment on that matter any further, only reaching a hand out to pat my arm. "Magnus is a good guy. Wants the best for you. Just trust him. He already seemed kind of protective of you. He'll help you figure it out."

"That was a lot. If that's Magnus being protective when I didn't include some details, then I hope he never finds out about the stuff I never told him."

Alexei frowned deeply at that, strong features now tense with concern. "What didn't you tell him?"

I sighed. "Do I have to tell you?"

He moved forward and took my hands, pressing them to his heart. "You told me to trust you. You told me that all would be well. I cannot sit there and accept your help if you don't accept mine. What happened that you didn't tell Magnus, Flower?"

My face curved into a soft smile at his earnest tone. "It's a long story. Be prepared. For a few months after my parents left me, I was homeless. Thank goodness, I still had my wallet with me. It had about fifty dollars in cash and a fifty-dollar prepaid gift card from Target that worked like a credit card. I lived okayish. I had enough street smarts to know what my resources were and how I could find what I needed. Sure, I slept in a few twenty-four hour libraries, a few hospitals, even a homeless shelter. Sure, I ate at some soup kitchens, begged some restaurants for any vegan leftovers they had, and even worked at a restaurant for food as payment, but I at least had some food in my stomach and a roof over my head at any given time. Eventually, I realized that my funds were running out. So, instead of freaking out and doing some dumb shit to get money, I decided I'd get a job. I found my way to a ranch near the outskirts of my hometown. The ranch was family-run, but they needed help with some chores here and there. I told them my story, and they were gracious enough to offer me a deal. I would work forty hours a week for the family, and in return, I would receive housing, food, and some extra cash. I accepted with no other doubts. I used what little I had of my intuition to make sure these guys weren't crooks trying to kidnap me or dump me into human trafficking. Thankfully, I was right."

Alexei squeezed my hand and walked out of the elevator with me when it opened after reaching the first floor. "What happened at that ranch? It sounds pretty good so far."

I smiled and nodded. "It was. I was ecstatic that I finally was getting an actual bed and food and money."

We headed towards one of the large fighting halls in the building, walking closer together out of fear of being attacked by some rando.

"The family was wonderful, and I loved spending time with them, even though the farm work was difficult. I learned quickly, though. The animals generally liked me, which made stuff much easier. The horses were my favorite. They were so pretty and nice and fun. I had a great time. The cows were scary, but they were fairly cooperative. Every day, I would get up at seven in the morning and get ready for the day's chores. I would finish up my routine at seven-forty-five and come downstairs for breakfast. They always had some kind of vegan option for me. Usually, it was almond milk, cereal, toast, and apple juice. After that, I would go with the father of the family to clean up the stables. We would tell horrible puns the entire time. After that, I went to work on cleaning up the horses while he handled the cows. We'd finish that work up by lunch time, where the wife usually made me some kind of salad plus sandwich or some kind of new vegan recipe. She was a vegetarian herself, so she often worked with me to make vegan or vegetarian-friendly meals. Wonderful woman. After lunch, they gave me two hours of non-work time. One hour for myself and another hour to take care of their two kids. They had a seven year old and a toddler. The kids adored me, and I loved them. We always got into trouble together, but they were so precious, I always took the blame."

Alexei smiled and nodded, wistfully looking away into the distance with a dopey look on his face, probably remembering his sister and the fun they'd had together.

"After that, I'd get back to work making sure the horses were ready to head out for some time on the paddocks. While they hung out, I fed the cows and other animals. I was scared of the pigs and chickens, but the sheep were so sweet, though rowdy. The family dog helped a lot, though. A massive German shepherd who the family called Button. Such a cute dog. After taking care of the animals and stuff, I'd head down to clean up the house, de-weeding the grass and other stuff like that. While I did that, the wife and husband would go work in the farm, making sure there weren't any issues with crops or anything like that. We'd all come back in for dinner, where the husband's mom would make us something warm and cosy. The wife always made sure to have some vegan options for me. We'd eat together and then put the kids to bed. Soon after, the adults and I would sit down and talk about stuff until ten at night. We wound down by eleven and went to sleep. Same routine every day. It was great. Except for the husband's dad…"

Alexei's face hardened quickly, almost instantaneously. He stopped in front of the hall and gripped me by the shoulders, forcing me to look him in the face. "Tell me he didn't do what I think he did. Tell me it wasn't that bad, Flo. Because if it is, I have to go kill him."

I froze up, pulling at my shoulder to free myself. He took the hint and let me go, stepping back a few paces. "What did he do?"

It took me a minute to compose myself and continue the story. "Every time the wife and husband were out of the house and the husband's mom was asleep, he'd hit me, make me do different tasks for him. If there was something dangerous in the house that had to be done, he would make me do it so his son and daughter-in-law would be spared. Let's say there was some kind of gas leak in the kitchen that no one could fix except for firefighters or something. When his family was busy or distracted, he'd have me do it without any kind of safety precautions. He'd tell me how to fix everything, but if I made even the smallest error, he'd beat me black and blue. I bled for days at a time. But he never hit my face. Never the face. Always the body. Probably so no one would learn of the abuse. I just thought it was because he was drunk or a naturally angry person. After a few weeks of that shit, I realized it was a race thing. Made sense. A ranch in Georgia that was family run in a city where there were only four black people, all of whom belonged to the same family. I knew it was because of my skin. I didn't say anything to the family."

Alexei looked at me gently, trying to make his face seem as kind and loving and friendly as possible. He asked softly, "Can I take your hand?"

I nodded yes, and he laced our fingers together.

"Can I hug you?"

I nodded yes, and he pulled me close, pressing me into a tight, warm embrace.

"Can I rub your back?"

I nodded, and he slowly moved his hands in circles on my upper back.

"Can I kiss your head?"

I shook my head no, and he simply accepted my refusal, continuing to rub my back and hug me.

"Is there more to the story? And do you want to tell it?"

"Yeah. And yes. Sometimes, he'd creep on me. In a particularly perverted way. After hitting me for a half hour, he'd tell me all this perverse, sexual shit. I always vomited after he said that stuff. It was so gross. I can't remember it now, but it was disturbing. But he never acted on his words. For that, I was grateful. The beatings never stopped, though. No matter the occasion, he'd always find a reason to hit me."

Alexei scowled against my hair, trying to not tense up too much.

"I'm just happy that he died violently in a huge car crash a week before I had to leave the family. They all mourned. I pretended to mourn with them, but I always secretly celebrated in my room."

The poor guy choked on air when I said that the old man died in a car crash. "Well, shit. That was unexpected."

"Yeah. I was surprised too, but so happy. It brought me great joy.

He looked at me carefully, crystalline eyes narrowed in concern. "So are you sure that you're okay? That's a heavy burden to bear."

I tried to not smile too much at how considerate he was. "I mean, yeah. Obviously. If it's any helpful indication, me being a sarcastic asshole is a good measure of my mental health. Sarcasm, I'm doing really great. No sarcasm, I'm doing really bad."

"Thank you. I think."

"You are quite welcome."

Alexei patted my cheek and smiled. "Still. Just let me know if you ever need to talk. I'm here for you, okay?"

I rolled my eyes, but only to try and keep him from looking too hard into it. I hated worrying people who had their own worries to think about. My hand patted his face in return, making him snort in amusement. He rolled his eyes back at me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders as we walked into the behemoth battle room.

Waiting at the corner of two tall walls were the rest of the noobs. Helga and James were arm-wrestling like a couple of knuckleheads while Gabriella looked away, face contorted into distaste at the other two teens' obnoxious behavior. James waved hello to Alexei and me, which gave Helga the opportunity to smash his hand into the floor while the brunette Chicagoan was distracted. The poor guy screamed loudly, clutching his hand to his chest as he stared at the blond German-American girl in terror. "What the fuck, Helga?!"

"All's fair in love and war, stupid."

"I completely agree, beautiful." I sat down beside Helga, resting my head in her lap playfully before it got shoved off with a violent push of her hand.

"Don't touch me, idiot."

I grinned evilly, and Alexei grinned back just as evilly. "So only James can touch you~? Does my sweet little Helga have a crush?"

She snarled at me, and I jumped behind Alexei to hide from her wrath. I knew she wouldn't hit me, but I was still terrified. She laughed hard, suddenly changing her expression when she saw how scared I was. "You're so lame. Scaredy-cat. Never insinuate that I have a crush again. Aromantics need no one's opinion on their love life."

I sat down beside her and held my hand out. I felt bad now. I didn't really realize that she could have been ace or aro and that I may have just insulted her after I teased her. And now I wanted a truce so I wouldn't say insensitive shit again. I'd had that happen to me enough when I was living with my apparent biological parents. It happened more when I was living with my foster parents. I knew how it felt to have others completely invalidate everything about your identity: romantic, sexual, gender, or otherwise. Helga just stared at my hand and then at me for a few seconds. I just waited for her to shake my hand.

When it still didn't happen, I explained myself. "I know how much it sucks when people don't accept you for stuff like that. Sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity. My parents ditched me for that same stuff. And my religious affiliation, but that's not important right now. I wanted to say sorry. I didn't mean to offend you or anything like that. I was just making a joke, and it made you upset."

She smiled at me genuinely, and my breath caught in my throat. This girl looked angelic as hell when she smiled that sweetly. "Are you serious?" Despite her having been born in the US, I could tell her German accent was still peeking through her voice.

"I don't joke about this shit. I got kicked out for being bi. My best friend could never come out to her parents. My other best friend was never accepted as being gay by his conservative family. I know what that's like. I don't want to ever make you feel unloved or unaccepted here. We're familia now. We have each other's backs when no one else does."

Alexei turned my hand so my palm faced downwards and then placed his hand over mine. "My country doesn't easily accept the LGBT community. I'm pansexual. My friends and neighbors never knew. One person almost found out, and I was forced to go into a relationship with a girl to hide my orientation. If I hadn't, I would have died in a jail by now. I'll do what I can to protect all of you. I promise."

James put his hand over Alexei's, eyes downturned and sad. "My uncle got beat to death by someone from my church because he was transitioning to female. They called him unnatural, ugly, a freak of nature. He was my favorite person in the world. He never judged me for any aspect of my life. But he got killed by a community so rooted in hating what's different from the norm, and I don't want to let anyone experience that again."

Gabriella gingerly rested her hand on James', eyes more kind and honest than I'd seen all day. "I have gay parents. They took me in when my blood family (mom and her boyfriend) disowned me for being lesbian and having a girlfriend. It's not easy being in this community. I don't often take interest in stuff that other people do, but this is really important to me. It's part of me and my life story. I won't judge anyone for their lives."

Helga bit her lip and rested a hand over Gabriella's, her eyes a little weak with tears. "My mom never talked down to me about not wanting a romantic relationship, but still being sexually attracted to others. She didn't understand it, but she still accepted me. Her boyfriend didn't like me. He always said I was a lunatic, a weirdo, a hateful and disgusting whore. She dumped him when she found out about him being emotionally and verbally abusive towards me. I never got to tell her goodbye and thank her. But thank you, guys. All of you. This is…"

I moved closer and hugged her tightly, rubbing her back. Our other three companions joined in on the hug, wrapping themselves around us in a motion of affection. "We love you so much. We love each other so much. We'll be okay, guys. We'll be fine."

James pulled back first, and Gabriella moved away after him. Helga freed herself from my arms but squeezed my hand gratefully. Alexei and I kept our hands together even when the hug ended. Why? We didn't really know. But it was still nice. James piped up after a few minutes, "We should have an oath or pact or something!"

"What?" came Alexei's response.

"A pact that we'll always be here for one another no matter what," he explained. "Like an oath between the Knights Templar who swore to protect the Ark of the Covenant and stuff. 'The blood of the Covenant is thicker than the water of the womb' kinda deal."

Gabriella snorted. "We don't need a pact to always have each others' backs, James."

"Yeah, but it would be so cool! And we could have matching tattoos or something, as proof! So no one can tell us that our pact means nothing if we get into a pickle and someone makes us hurt one another or something like that."

I smiled nervously. "That sounds like a good idea to me."

Alexei sighed, "You're a romantic, Flo. Shut up."

"Hey!"

He smirked. "You know it's true."

"Guys, James seriously does have a point. If someone captures one of us and says we have to kill someone else in the group, we'd tell them we can't because of an oath. And then they'd say our oath is invalid because it doesn't have any physical proof. What if we did have physical proof?"

Helga scowled. "Like what? If someone says tattoo, I'm out."

Alexei smiled slowly. "How about a brand?"

"We're too poor for that," replied Gabriella.

I retorted, "Not really. We have the hotel money and shit, ya know?"

"They get paid?" asked James.

"No. But they'd make stuff for us if we asked."

"All of you shut up! I didn't mean a clothing line or something like that. I meant, a fire-brand."

This seemed to catch Gabriella's interest. I didn't want to think about why. "How would that work? We ask the hotel guys for a brand and a fire?"

He smiled, shaking his head. "Who needs that stuff when you have a fire starter right here? Flo can do the brand on all five of us!"

"No."

"Flower, come on!"

"I'm not doing that, Alyoshenka. You know the story of that childhood friend of mine. Who knows what'll happen if I can't control my powers?! What if I hurt you guys?!" I protested. "I can't do that to you guys."

He rested a hand on my shoulder to ground me. "Calm down. I'll help train you. I'm the son of a sea god. I'm impervious to major burns and stuff because water has a high heat capacity."

I rolled my eyes. "What if I'm not the child of Frey? What then?"

A beautiful voice teased me from a few yards behind me. "What if you are? What then?"

* * *

My head whipped around to denounce that idea quickly. I thought it was some random older einherji that wanted to make fun of us. Nope. It was Jesus.

Okay. It wasn't the _real_ Jesus. It was a guy who looked like he could be Jesus.

Everyone, including me, kind of just stared in awe at the guy that talked to us. He was glowing. Literally glowing. Light was coming off of his skin like he was made of sunshine. He looked like the most perfect version of Marvel's Thor that I could have ever imagined. Muscled to perfection, hair more golden than sunlight, eyes switching between different shades of blue, facial features more beautifully carved than any sculpture of any god in existence. He was adorned in beautiful armor of solid gold with a huge animal-horn staff at his side that he leaned on. My eyes began to burn from watching him too much. When I looked back at my friends, I saw that they'd been covering their eyes for a while. Golden Jesus walked towards us and we all stood up, bending over at the waist as we bowed. It was clear that a god was in our midst.

"And what if you are the child of Frey, Pushpa? What then?"

My tongue turned to cotton, and my throat seized up. The God-Man reached a hand out and tilted my face up by the chin to look him in the eyes. He smiled softly, sadly.

"You look just like your mother, you know. She never did accept my compliments when I told her she was beautiful. But she was prettier than any of the goddesses would admit. Maybe that's why I couldn't stay. She was enough to make me want to give up godhood for her. She never told me about you, Pushpa. Not once. Maybe she feared I wouldn't let her keep you. A bit counterintuitive, though. She didn't keep you either. Her family wouldn't have accepted you. You would have lived a life of misery. No resources, no love. She wouldn't accept that. So, my beloved went behind my back and gave you to another family. She prayed to Odin to change their memories and minds to include you. He did. And I never knew you existed."

Unable to think of anything else to say once my voice decided to work again, I joked, "Magnus was right. I better tell him he's a genius after this."

The beautiful man laughed brightly, face almost glowing more when he was happy. "Always the jokester. It's nice to see you in good spirits after so much darkness, dear one. How are you enjoying Valhalla?"

I shrugged, loosening up after his joy. Everyone else in my little team also relaxed. "Pretty good. Magnus is a bit overprotective, but he and Alex are cute together. Alexei's a sweetheart, and these guys are the best people ever. Magnus' friends are cool too. But I don't wanna fight in a war. I just want everyone to live out their afterlives happily. It's not fair. Why should we fight a war that Asgard started by hating on Loki so much?"

He sighed sadly, eyes a bit ashamed. "I know. I too do not wish for war. But there is not much to be done when it is fated, dear one. We cannot change the future. I will do my best to help you in these times when you must learn of your abilities and destiny. But I cannot change the future."

My heart hardened. Such bullshit. Even a god like Frey was telling me nothing can be done to change the future. I looked at him coldly, trying to emanate as much of my anger as I could in just my words. "Maybe you can't, but I will. Watch me."

His lips curved up into a smile, and he moved forward to pet my hair. "Just as stubborn as your mother. Well, I hope you have a good plan. I'll help you if you want me to."

"We'll see."

Frey became silent after that, chuckling to himself a moment later. "You know, when Magnus first saw me in his dream, he hugged me so tight. I felt so horrible for breaking his heart and leaving his mother alone like that. But you don't seem to need me much. I cannot say it doesn't hurt, but…"

I bit my lip. And now he was guilt-tripping me, though unknowingly. I wanted to reach for him and comfort him, but I was nervous to, out of fear that I'd get burned by his skin and out of hesitation as to whether or not I even cared about him.

"Sorry…it's just weird to me. My whole life is a lie. I'm having a hard time understanding this."

He nodded, smiling almost knowingly. "I know, dear. I know. I'm sorry about all of this. It is far too much for you to deal with after dying. I should have considered that. Just know that no matter what you do, who you discover that you are, you are still my child. I still love you."

This broke my heart a little, and I rushed forward, smashing my face into his neck as far as I could reach, while my hands flew around his waist to grip onto him.

Frey cooed and stroked a hand down the back of my head, pressing me to him closer as he dissolved his armor into thin air. He squeezed me in the hug, pressing his face into my head desperately. He murmured softly in a language that sounded like Danish and continued petting my hair. I didn't cry, but I did tell him in my smallest voice, "I love you too, Papa." I felt him smile against my face and clung onto him for a few more minutes. He just radiated all kinds of positivity, and I was absolutely melting into that joy and goodness.

We split up after a little while. He smiled wider still, cupping my face in his hands. He pressed kisses to my cheeks, chin, nose, and forehead. I quietly accepted them, my own face wide with a happy smile. This was my first time actually being accepted and loved unconditionally by a parent, and I was on cloud nine.

He left me with a few more words of love, a few more words of promise, a few more kisses, and one last hug.

Alexei snorted. "And you call me dramatic."

"Get out."


	4. Chapter 4: Protected

I've Never Seen

"So what do we do now? Flo, are you willing to do the brand?"

I pursed my lips together. "Yeah. But I still need someone to train me."

Alexei glared at me expectantly, ocean eyes burning holes through my skull. "I said I would train you, didn't I?"

"And what if I hurt you?"

"I can heal myself. I'm no whimpering toddler. My father is the God of the Seas. I'll be fine."

He pressed a hand to my cheek in an attempt to make me agree with him and accept his terms. "Fine. I'll do it. Just don't let me hurt you. If I get too intense, shut it all down. Drown me if you have to."

Alexei snickered. "I'll wait for the melee to kill you."

My muscles ached with my determination to not roll my eyes at my idiotic new friend. "So what are we doing now? I really don't want to go back to my floor. Magnus is super cool, but I just don't feel comfortable over there."

Helga sighed, rolling her shoulders back to get comfortable. "Same here. My floormates are nice, but the environment there is not very homely or accepting."

James tapped his fingers on the curve of his chest-ward bent knee. "I like my floormates a lot. They're so awesome. They always have good advice for me. I just don't like the oldest member. She's always so mean to me for no particular reason. I don't like how uneasy I feel around her."

We all had our fair share of reasons to not return to our respective floors. Gabriella said her floormates were too scary for her. She mentioned something about overly territorial behavior on their part. Alexei said his floor had only a few people and felt very lonely. I assume with his sister's lifelong companionship and his bustling Russian hometown, the empty space may have felt a tad too vast for him to feel happy on his floor.

James made a particularly peculiar suggestion to soothe our sensitive sentiments. "Maybe we can all sleep together. Not like, in a weird way. More like a sleepover! We can just take one of the empty meeting rooms here and knock out together."

Helga protested coldly, "What of pillows and blankets? Not all of us can stand the cold you know. And I'm not sure I feel comfortable sleeping near men."

I patted her shoulder. "It's fine. You don't have to stay if you feel uncomfortable. We'll understand. James suggested that since we all don't wanna go back to our rooms."

Her sharp tongue softened with worry. "I get that. I don't want to go back. But…"

Alexei spoke cautiously, looking to his fellow male for confirmation. "James and I will sleep on the outsides of the group. You can sleep in the middle." James agreed to those statements.

I nodded in agreement as well, smiling at my new buddy. "Yeah. See? I'll sleep between you and Alyoshenka. Gabriella, are you fine with sleeping between James and Helga?"

The stoic girl hummed her affirmation. Everyone looked at Helga expectantly. She smiled hesitantly in response, nodding at the idea.

Alexei smirked. "And we won't need a heater or blankets. This one is warm enough for all five of us without the need for comforters."

They all began touching my arm or forehead to see if that was true. Helga jumped back in slight shock at my apparently burning hot body. James hummed and rubbed his face against my hand like a weirdo, which I allowed out of the mercy in my heart. Gabriella cooed at how warm I felt and lied down on top of me, almost toppling me to the ground.

"Get off of me, you heathens!"

James shot me a deadpan look. "All of us are heathens. This entire plane of existence is full of heathens. There's very few actual Christians in this building, Flo. We're all pagan heathens."

"You get out too."

"No thanks."

Helga snorted while Alexei hummed into my shoulder. "Are you like that with everyone?"

"Only with the people who I know want to suck my dick," I retorted. This made Alexei choke on his spit and had James crying tears of hysterical laughter when he fell over and hit his head on the marble floor.

Helga flushed a bright pink and punched my arm. "Stop that! You're so gross!"

I winked at her, laughs coming from my mouth too. She was so disturbed and embarrassed by my behavior, it was so funny. Alexei punched my other shoulder with a scowl. "She's right. That was so weird."

Gabriella was trying her hardest not to laugh when I responded with a middle finger to the Russian's unamused face.

"Alright, you all. Settle down. Flo, are you sure you can keep all of us warm?" Helga doubted aloud. "You yourself said you have very little experience with your powers. I don't want to cause any injuries for us or make you fatigued from overworking your powers."

I shook my head, still smiling at the previous jokes. "No, no. I'll be fine as long as someone keeps me warm too. Even if I'm new to this whole magic thing, I don't mind providing you guys with warmth if that's what you need. Now let's find somewhere more comfortable to sleep. This marble is hurting my ass."

We all got up together and padded out of the room, closing the door behind us. James and Helga tried to come up with rooms we could sleep in, but found few solutions. Gabriella cleared her throat to get our attention.

"I think I saw some kind of napping room on this floor. It's near the healing wing. We can sleep in that room."

None of us really knew what she was talking about, so we let her lead us to the room. The sweet and silent girl tried to give Helga and Alexei the directions so they could lead the way, but they refused, telling her they didn't know the way well enough. Eventually, she mustered up enough courage to head down the hall in front of us after James and I reassured her that it was no big deal and that all would be well.

She pushed open the doors to a smaller room at the end of the medical wing and led us inside, switching on the torches with the light switch on the wall beside the door. (Yeah, I didn't understand that either.)

It was perfect.

The room had every possible form of couch and daybed and bean bag in existence. It was beautiful. At first, we all went towards different couches, but stopped to look at one another. We had agreed to sleep in the same space so they could get some of my warmth. We ended up picking a weird-looking bed-couch mashup. It had a square mattress at the center with medium-height cushioned walls lining each side of the bed. The corners were covered in large, fluffy pillows to probably prevent any injuries or suffocations.

We found the bed fairly quickly, only having walked a few feet from our individual couches to spot it. Thankfully, the room was also stocked with enough blankets and pillows to fill up one of our suite bathrooms.

Everyone picked one blanket and one pillow before climbing in. As indecisive as I am, I was the last to get in bed after having spent five solid minutes to find the perfect blanket and pillow. Everyone actually ended up making a kind of circle with me in the center for equal heat distribution. Alexei slept at my right, Helga at my left, Gabriella at my legs, and James at my head. We kind of placed the pillows on top of one another and leaned against each other, our blankets tucked around each individual.

Alexei made himself comfortable at my back, wrapping an arm around my waist to keep me in place. We ended up sharing a pillow. Helga moved further down and slept with her pillow under her head as her face burrowed into my stomach with her arms curled around my legs. Gabriella slept with her head situated in the space on the bed between my knees and Helga's stomach, while her legs rested against Alexei's feet. James slept perpendicular to me, so the top of my head was pressed to his stomach. His face was buried in Alexei's hair, and his legs lay at my outstretched arms.

All in all, it was a very weird position. But everyone got some form of warmth from me, which meant that we accomplished our goal.

I had enough heat to give everyone. Everyone felt some part of my body, either my feet, head, arms, or legs. Alexei greedily had my entire back pressed against him. But everyone was warm. I didn't even have to think too hard about keeping my body temperature up. It came naturally to me. What a relief!

Ten hours of deep slumber passed by, with everyone shifting a little bit to either get closer to me or further from me depending on how warm they wanted to be.

We woke up to the sound of someone cocking a gun and pointing it at us. Our eyes shot open almost simultaneously, and we readied ourselves for self-defense within seconds.

I frowned deeply when I realized that Magnus' friend Thomas Jefferson, Jr. (aka TJ) was pointing his gun at us. And beside him was my famous (or infamous) half-brother, his grey eyes glowering knives into my head. Still drowsy from being woken up too quickly and irritated at the method, I glared back at Magnus. "What the fuck is going on here?"

Magnus scowled. "I could ask you the same thing. I come to your door after getting ready for the day to find you completely missing, and now I see you cuddling with these guys without a care in the world that Floor Nineteen would have worried about your absence. Couldn't you have told me something?"

My scowl distorted into an angrier sneer. "I don't have to tell you anything, last I checked. You're not my dad, Magnus. Back off. I do what I want with whomever I want."

His frustration needed no clarification. "I don't care. I'm responsible for you. You're on my floor. In that case, I am the boss of you."

"No. You're just a guy desperate to take on the role of big brother because he can finally go on the power trip he's been itching for since the moment he got here. Your fate was never in your hands and all you wanted was some semblance of control over your life and because you never got it, you've resorted to using me as a puppet of sorts so you can feel power. Also, you've got some nerve bringing your buddy to threaten us with his gun when all we were doing was sleeping and cuddling."

Sure, my words were a bit much, but so were his actions. He could have just told me calmly that he wanted me to tell him where I go before I run off so he can keep track of me. Instead, he came with a guy and his gun to aim bullets at my head to wake me up.

Alexei rested a hand on my forearm, making me turn to him so fast that I almost got whiplash. His eyes told me to relax, but his body language told me he wanted a fight too.

I reeled back some and looked up at the blond einherji. "Look, dude. I know you're used to expecting danger, but you came in too strong too fast. Just like how the police do down on Earth. Reacting to even the most docile situation with extreme violence or anger. Not okay. You should have thought logically on what to do."

Magnus bit his lip, wringing his hands together. I could tell he was trying to not lash out again. "I know you're used to independence and suddenly close friendships. I'm not. I lived on the streets for more than six months. I don't trust just anyone. I don't want you to make any mistakes in choosing allies."

"Not your call, Magnus. Like I said. I can handle myself. I may not know about all this magical stuff, but I know plenty about humans. Believe me. I'm a people person. I know how people think. You just have to take my word for it. If I ask you for help, help me. But if I don't, please don't assume that I need help. Just take any hints I give you on whether or not I need guidance. Okay? Just head back for now. We'll come down there eventually. I promise." My fellow child of Frey slowly relaxed, nodding his head and turning back with his friend. They walked away while tersely conversing about me.

Gabriella sighed. "You two are so dramatic."

"Tell me about it."

James huffed, sounding more and more indignant with every word coming out of his mouth. "I still can't believe he had his friend point a gun at the new kids. I mean, we just got here! We have so much lingering trauma from everything that's happened, and now he decides to shoot at us. Sure, we'd be fine, but it's still not okay!"

"Chill out, dude. It's not a big deal. Just a misunderstanding. Don't let something small get to your head," warned Gabriella. Her eyes grew dark and distant, as if a flashback had started to infiltrate her train of thought. "Never escalate a situation. It can get out of hand faster than you would think…"

Alexei nodded. "It's best to just accept that he was on high alert and concerned about his floormate and overreacted as a result. Now. Everyone get up. Flo is getting squished between us."

I nodded, my lips quivering harshly as I tried to not burst out into loud laughter. Alexei got off of me first, his face redder than a Maine lobster. I couldn't for the world understand what had him embarrassed. In fact, his expression baffled me so much that all suggestions of laughter died away immediately. James rolled away from us and slowly stood up, laughing like a hyena the whole time. Helga's face also turned red, but only because she tried to stop her laughter. Gabriella's shit-eating grin threw me off a lot. I complained frustratedly, "What are you guys laughing about?!"

James snorted. "Our poor Russian man got a sunburn on his front half but never told you to get away because he loved the hug."

Gabriella rolled her eyes at his explanation. "That, and he got aroused while holding you."

I scrunched up my nose in distaste, pouting at my new friends. When I peeked at him, I saw Alexei's expression morph into one of mortification and melancholy. That tugged at my heartstrings, and guilt started flooding my mind. I sat up and took his face into my hands, rubbing at his cheeks gently. "Hey, hey, sweetie, it's alright. It's okay. Look, I'm really sorry about the sunburn. I can't control my powers yet. I'm so sorry. And as for the arousal, I understand. It's okay to feel that way."

"No, no, no. It's definitely not. You know what my sister experienced. I did the same to you, on a less severe level."

My head shook so quickly, I thought I would get a concussion. "Don't you dare compare this to that! Don't even think about it!" I didn't even realize I was shouting until I saw his frightened expression. I closed my eyes, not having known until it happened that I was glaring at him for saying what he said. I tried my hardest to calm down so we could talk more easily. I didn't want him to see that I was seconds away from a mental meltdown, that my emotions were just as turbulent as the powers contained in the same space, and that I wasn't really as mentally stable as I wanted to appear.

"Look. Sweetheart. What happened to your sister was the work of unfathomably evil humans. Okay? They did it because they're horrible people. What you experienced was a regular bodily function. It happens. I won't fault you for that. It wasn't intentional. Don't feel guilty for something that's a part of being human, okay?"

His face softened once again, and he nodded in silent acceptance. I could tell he didn't agree with my words, just based on the tension in his jaw and neck muscles, but his understanding of my words was enough for me.

I smiled and patted his cheek before standing up myself and stretching my aching limbs. "Alright, assholes. Let's get going before Magnus decides to use my head on a spike as a decoration in his room." Gabriella snickered under her breath, Helga scowled in irritation, but James rolled his eyes and ignored my commentary. Alexei hopped up and stretched his arms and legs, making sure to twist his upper body a few times around to get rid of any tension in his lower back. I did the same, but also I made sure to do some head rolls so my upper back would stop hurting.

Alexei stepped out of the bed and onto the floor. Gabriella joined him quickly after, and Helga jumped over the ledge as if it were a hurdle during track practice. James and I were last, carefully climbing over the foot-high cushioned ledges like a couple of corgis trying to jump hurdles. It pretty much didn't happen.

The five of us walked back to our rooms, promising to meet up at the elevator before going to breakfast together.

When I reached my floor, I realized that my fellow floormates had crowded around the elevator in the Murderous Viking Half-Circle of Eternal Doom. I smiled sheepishly up at them, only for Alex to drag me to Magnus' room behind her as the others trailed my footsteps.

She knocked on the door hard and shoved it open when Magnus hesitantly pulled back the heavy wooden plank. He stumbled backwards, landing on the floor on his ass. Alex pushed me down harshly, almost toppling me onto Magnus' bed.

And so began the hour-long lecture about how irresponsible I am.

I tried to not let my anxiety seep through my face again, but based on Mallory's (different from usual) stern look at her buddies, I figured my facial features made my fear obvious. Mallory sat beside me, a calming force in this room of badasses who could kill me with nothing but their eyes.

"You worried us back there. Magnus, though he isn't much of a sibling person, actually worried about you. Which speaks volumes, since he doesn't. I'm kidding. Don't get your panties in a twist, Sunshine."

Even though I wanted to, I couldn't laugh because of the smothering fear enveloping my mind.

Alex huffed, double-colored eyes stabbing into my face coldly. "I don't get protective over Magnus for no reason. He doesn't need me to protect him and I don't need him to protect me. But you actually got his blood pressure through the roof and freaked him out. Not okay. Disappearing like that with no sign or word is dangerous here."

Though my instinct told me to defend myself and my dignity, my mouth felt glued shut. I couldn't speak, which aggravated me more than anything else.

By some miracle, my mind cleared, and my vocal cords functioned normally again.

"First off, it's none of your business what I do. It's not Magnus' business, either, even though we're related. But you guys are his friends. I have no relation to you. I don't need to explain myself. Two, I assumed no one would mind, care, or notice if I had a sleepover with my new buddies. Three, I don't like being in that huge room alone. That's stupid. So I easily went along with my friends so I wouldn't have to sleep alone."

Halfborn snorted, rolling his eyes in disbelief. "More like you don't like being on this floor. Just admit it. It's so obvious, even I can tell."

I hesitated. "Yeah. I just don't feel at home here. Sure, Magnus and I are related, but we're not family. Not the way I know family to be. Those noobs? They're my family. I felt that way since we hung out after dinner together last night. We bonded so quickly. No offense to you guys, but y'all can't compare to them."

"No offense taken. It _was_ odd that you were put on our floor, though. Maybe someone hoped Magnus would balance out your powers? But I can't say," proposed Halfborn.

"It was because I snarked at the guys at the front desk. But I don't care. I just want to be on a floor with my buddies. They get me. They got my struggle. It's weird being without them."

Magnus stood up off the floor, having remained in his awkward turtle position for the majority of the conversation. He brushed himself off. "Almost like the feeling of an amputated limb. You feel like something's supposed to be there, but isn't. Yeah, I know the feeling."

He looked down at me with some kind of peculiar shine in his eyes. I couldn't recognize it. I can tell you, though, that I felt like a lab animal being judged and experimented on. The scrutinized feeling was strong.

"You'll be with them eventually. For now, we need to go to someone to figure out your powers. I'm the moderator. You know what I mean, right? You're definitely not. You're the opposite of me, representing Dad's extremes. We're taking you to speak with someone who can tell us what you're here for."

I scowled. "Excuse me?"

He sighed. "Bad wording. We need to see if there's a prophecy about you or something that'll tell us what you're here to help us with."

I wasn't impressed.

Alex stood up, patting Magnus' shoulder. "Take a chill pill, Sunshine. I got this." Magnus sat down. "What that idiot means is, Sam chose you. She saw something important in you. She decided you're needed here. She's smart and won't pick someone just because. What we need to do is see what exactly makes you so special and what you can contribute to Valhalla and the fight of Ragnarok."

I smiled. "You seem like the diplomat here. Even though Magnus is team leader or some dumb shit like that."

Alex laughed at that. "Surprising. I'm usually the worst for diplomacy. Loki being my mom turns people off immediately. If anyone, Sam is the diplomat among us, but thanks anyways for the compliment."

A thumbs up from me. I smiled and stood up. "No prob. Anyways, if I'm going on a mission, it'll only be with my fam. Not y'all. No hate, I just don't want to be an extra noob in this established group when I can be a noob among other noobs."

Magnus sighed melodramatically. "Kids these days. Fine. What you need to do is talk to one of the Aesir gods like Thor or Odin."

Halfborn grunted as he sat down on the floor near the bed. "Better idea. Talk to Freya. She's your aunt, right? She can tell you what you are." The others seemed to agree with that more.

Mallory elaborated. "The Aesir would think of you as a pansy or a tool for war. Like usual. Lady Freya may help you truly and give good advice as to what you should do with your life. She'll care for you on your father's behalf and treat you kinder than Aesir."

I nodded. "And how do you go about finding Freya? Is there like a presidential suite in this place where I could find her?"

They all laughed like I was a dumb toddler asking a cute question.

Magnus snickered. "She's in Vanaheim, the Valhalla for the Vanir. Sam got you first, so you're here and not there. Anyways, you'll have to travel pretty far. Best bet is to ask Dad for a means of travel."

I grinned. "Orr…I ask to borrow Sleipnir! Okay. I have an idea. Thanks, guys! See y'all later!" My mind was running too fast for me to slow down and explain to them what I was thinking. I sprinted out of the door, only to bump into James. He caught me with a huff. "Sorry, dude!"

He steadied me and patted my arm with a sweet smile. "No worries, Flo. Alexei told me to come get you. We're having breakfast!"

We hooked arms as we walked down to the elevator. "Magnus told me I should go talk to Freya about who I am and what I need to do. He said I had to go with his team, but I said no. You down for a mission to Vanaheim?"

The guy hesitated. "Are we allowed to?"

I shrugged. "If Magnus can go, so can I. And if they say no or punish us, they're racist and sexist, and I'll tell on them to Dad."

James chuckled. "Daddy's girl."

"I don't really have an option, do I? My mom left, and my parents are terrible."

"Touché. Are you ready for breakfast? Because after that, we have the melee. And I'm pretty sure the rest of us have some kind of idea about our powers and stuff. You're still in the air about this, right?"

I nodded, my eyes turning to the floor as I tried to think of what I could possibly do. Everyone here has so much experience with fighting and they have usable powers. I didn't even actually know what my powers were, and I definitely couldn't fight well. I must have looked very upset or hurt, because James gently wrapped me up in a hug and reassured me that we would figure things out.

"We're here to help you. We're all going to be okay, Flo. Just trust me on this, okay? Don't worry. We got your back."

I nodded, eager to pull away and get over this momentary funk of mine. "Yeah. Thanks, man."

He smiled, moving away far enough that he was still able to pat my back. "No problem. Come on." He led me down to the huge dining hall, keeping me in front of him so he could keep an eye out for things that could hurt one or both of us. The entire time we walked, he kept a hand on my lower back in what I thought he intended as a protective, comforting gesture. I did think the whole ordeal a little unnecessary, but I didn't complain. The more affection, the better.

It felt good to know that someone had my back, somewhat literally.

I remember walking into the dining area feeling less overwhelmed than when I first arrived at Hotel Valhalla. James stuck by my side until we found our friends and sat down with them. I sat with Gabriella, who greeted me with a simple smile.

Helga reached across the table and gripped my forearm in traditional Germanic greeting. A grin split my face as I returned the hello. Alexei walked to us from across the room and moved to sit beside Helga, but only after pressing a kiss hello to the top of my head.

"Hey, guys. So um. How was your return to your floors?"

Helga let out a desperate groan and let her face fall onto the table. "I never want to go back there ever again." Alexei affectionately rubbed her upper back, his hand shaking as it approached the center of her back during the rub. I still couldn't believe how nervous he was to touch us.

"I had some luck with my floormates this morning, but I missed you all dearly," commented our resident Russian babe.

James and I cooed at him, high-fiving over the others' heads. "You're so cute, dude. I can't believe you missed us when we spent nearly ten hours in the same bed."

Helga's pretty face burned red when she looked up at him in shock. "We slept like innocent children! Don't make this sexual!"

I hid my laughter in my palm, reaching across to pat her hand. "Honey, it's fine. He meant the same thing you did. He did mean sleep. The way he worded it was uncomfortable. Really, James. How can you make this angel of a human so uncomfortable at what is supposed to be the most accepting of all tables~?"

The German blonde sitting across from me blushed deeper, and I thought she was just red from holding her breath. Gabriella noticed our game and played along with a little smirk.

(That surprised me, because I didn't even realize it was a game.)

Gabriella's Spanish tones rolled over my ears like velvet or silk. I tried to hide how hard I melted into my seat at hearing those beautiful words. " _Ay, Dios, mi reina perfecta se siente avergonzada~! Déjanle sola, idiotas. Ella todavía está arrojando, pobrecita._ " Helga didn't seem to understand, and she inclined her ear towards Gabriella, confusion written on her face.

The four of us laughed at the adorable sight.

She grew more frustrated and set her lips in a tight pout, arms crossed petulantly despite her strong, leader-like mentality. James tried to poke her cheek, and she bit at his finger. Alexei patted her shoulder, and she glared him half to death. Gabriella tried to ruffle her hair, and let's just say, I was worried my new friend would need a new hand that day.

But when I reached out to cup her cheek and kiss her forehead, Helga didn't resist or try to hurt me as much as she begrudgingly accepted the affection with a soft grunt and a roll of those bangin' baby blues.

The others simply rolled their eyes and moved on to get themselves some food. All of us needed the energy to even think about the melee happening in an hour's time.

We all went our separate ways to get what we wanted. Some of us came back with plates of bacon, hash browns, and sausage, while the rest returned with mountains of tropical fruit, tofu scramble, and mini bagels with jam. Gabriella and I were the only people not eating meat in a group of five.

While we ate, we described our first morning without each other.

"I mean, it wasn't as bad as yesterday, but I think that's because they were glad to have me away from them. Like, I felt like it could have gone way worse than it actually did. I'm glad I'm okay, though. It was only a little while, and I spent that time in my room," explained James. His demeanor appeared quite calm as compared to the previous day, but I chalked that up to having gotten accustomed to the Hotel.

Helga shrugged her shoulders up, rubbing her hands together, despite the lack of any kind of air-conditioning or cooling in the space. I thought it was kind of hot, but fire lived under my skin, so maybe it was just me.

I reached over and held her hands in mine, to which poor Helga nearly liquified from the relief. "Thank you. I just haven't been able to get warm since…" Her awkward expression further endeared her to us. She bit her lip and scrunched her eyebrows, clearly trying to deduce a good way to word the thoughts in her head. Having given up on trying to say her part without awkwardness, she shook her head.

"Whatever. I just haven't been able to get warm again after you left that bed. I get cold easily, but you kept me warm."

I nearly squealed in front of five thousand people, just because I couldn't believe how cute my friends are. I practically wanted to launch myself over the table and coddle Helga, but Gabriella kept me in my seat with a hand on my shoulder. "No. Stay down, dumbass."

"I'm not a dog, Ella."

She seemed taken aback by my response. "Ella? Not Gabby? Or Abby?"

I snorted, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "I'm no common peasant. I have standards, darling. And my first standard is to be cooler than everyone else by giving you a cooler nickname."

Alyoshenka scoffed, taking a bite out of his muffin. "Surprising. Considering you gave me sunburn."

"You don't get to blame me for your bad decisions, Alexei. Shut your mouth. Not my fault I'm so hot." I grumbled, shoving a strawberry into my mouth and chewing dramatically. I don't know how to explain that with words. Just imagine a kid tauntingly eating an ice cream cone that was denied to their friend, and you've got the right idea.

Helga giggled into her shoulder, her hands occupied by one of mine. "You're ridiculous."

"No. I'm rid-iculous. As in, I want to be rid of this -iculous loser named Alexei," I retorted. My jab didn't affect the Leaning Tower of Russia at all. He rolled his eyes and kissed the hand of mine that held both of Helga's.

"You're stupid."

"If that's true, how stupid do you have to be to have just realized that?" I looked at Gabriella like the guy from The Office. She choked as her laughter overtook her body like a demon of joy and wheezing. Her sarcastic words stabbed me in the breast. (It hurts more than a stab to the stomach. I would know.)

"I hate you all."

James cleared his throat and began reenacting that Vine that's like, "That is _not correct_. Because according to the encyclopedia of-". Everyone groaned at that. I just sighed in disappointment.

"I still hate you all."

A horn blew loudly out of nowhere, the noise jarring me so harshly that I fell out of my seat. Gabriella pulled me up, and the five of us looked around for the source of the noise.

Magnus stepped up to us, approaching our little table quickly. "Time for the melee, kiddos. You guys ready?"

We spoke in one voice. "No."

"Great! Finish up eating and follow me."

"Don't tell me what to do, Dad," I replied. Magnus rolled his eyes and waved his hand in a motion to make us follow.

Unfortunately, I was still eating when everyone finished up and stood to set their plates aside. "Guys, wait up!" I hurried to shovel food into my mouth, but the others laughed and shook their heads. Gabriella kissed my cheek as she rose from her seat. Alexei planted a kiss on the corner of my mouth as he passed me on his way to the trash can nearby, and James landed his kiss on my temple. Helga only patted my head.

I was somewhat surprised by the affection but ignored my confusion in favor of finishing my meal. As I hurried to toss away the trash and set the place at the returning station, my friends had begun following Magnus. I sprinted to catch up and barely made it.

Gabriella rolled her eyes and kept me close by with an arm around my waist. "You're so slow. Slow Flo," teased James from in front of us. He chose to walk backwards to watch me as he made fun of me. Alexei grunted when James bumped into his back a few times.

"Stop that! Walk carefully if you're going backwards, or just walk like a normal human being. Ridiculous," scolded our resident babushka. He kept a hand on James' shoulder to guide him on the backwards trek to wherever Magnus was taking us.

Helga rolled her eyes at us, choosing to instead ask Magnus intelligent questions about the melee than take part in our stupidity.

The armory had me shooketh. We were all shooketh. Helga just fell to her knees in front of the sword display and stared up at it in awe, arms held out for a hug. What a loser. Alexei seemed completely unimpressed with the entire ordeal. James went ballistic, giggling maniacally as he ran for the knives. Gabriella sat with me on one of the benches and watched the idiots lose their minds over some pointy bois.

"How much longer are they gonna take?"

She sighed. "Twenty."

I groaned. "Also, I'm gonna die! I have weak-ass powers, and I don't like fighting. Can I sit this one out, Magnus?"

The gray-eyed tree shook his head. "No."

"Fuck this place."

"Fuck me instead," joked my foolish fellow Spanish-speaker.

My glare didn't affect her. "I'm sitting here having a crisis, and you're trying to get some ass? Low blow, Ella. Strike one."

She laughed, bumping shoulders with me. "Chill out, morena. We're good. We'll protect you."

James grinned at us from across the room. "Yeah! Don't worry. We'll keep you between us. Circle of protection, right? You'll be fine. Just relax." He grabbed a set of short throwing knives and a belt, strapping the leather belt around his waist and dropping the knives into the sheaths.

Alexei sat on my other side. "Quite. You are defenseless. We will not let harm come to you."

I stared. "But like. I don't wanna be completely relying on you guys. What if you get hurt?! I can't let you guys die for me?"

Magnus piped up, "Oh, you mean like how you died for your friends?"

"Exactly! Wait, what?" I sputtered. That comment completely threw me off.

He laughed, patting my shoulder. "Dude, I know you. We may have met yesterday, but I know your type. Overly selfless, loyal to a fault, unnecessarily guilty-feeling about things that aren't your fault. I'm the same way. I saw myself in you the moment you stared at me when I first met you. It's not hard to see that you're way too concerned about your friends. I can understand why. No one took care of you, so you're taking care of everyone else. It's brave, but not needed.

These guys can handle themselves. But they wanna help you, and now you're feeling upset that you're not doing what you are apparently supposed to be doing. Just let them do their thing and protect you. That's what they want to do, what they feel obligated to do. Just like how you feel obligated to make sure they're okay."

I hated that he was right.

Alyoshenka pressed a hand to my shoulder, a slow, but dim smile on his lips. Damn, that face still made me melt. "We are your friends, but you are our friend too. You feel responsible for us, but we are also responsible for you. Let us keep you safe. Besides, you don't have any other option."

We had a silent understanding and acknowledgement of one another before another horn blew loudly from somewhere else in the massive building. Magnus grinned. "Grab your shit. We're off to kill some people."

* * *

We were off.

The entire time we walked, my stomach churned and constricted painfully, a heavy weight settling in my heart. Of course, I could see that all of my friends were nervous, save for Magnus, but I could barely keep an eye on them because of my own mental-emotional hurdles.

Magnus led us into a massive open arena, torches illuminating the space like giant birthday candles, while the dark shadows of the pillars at the entrance fell over the room like stiff sentinels of stone.

The room looked to be almost bigger than a football field. Many of the other einherji had gotten into their groups and stocked up with weapons. I had furnished myself with nothing but a fairly heavy sword I'd grabbed on our way out of the armory. My companions all held weapons of different style and type. They seemed nervous about the battle, but they moved the weapons in the hands as if they'd known how to use them. I could only lift the sword off the ground. That was the extent of my ability to wield the thing.

Someone announced loudly that this would be a practice battle. The horn sounded one last time, filling the room like the music of a rock concert. Some people clutched their ears at the sudden onslaught of noise and fell to their knees when it ended. Clearly, a couple of the new kids almost went deaf.

Magnus wished me and my friends luck, trying to act reassuring, but he ran off to find Floor Nineteen. Meanwhile, we all huddled together to try and figure out how to handle this whole thing. They kept me in the middle and faced outwards to make sure we wouldn't get ambushed.

Frankly, we had no idea of what to expect.

The attack was insane.

A bunch of people came at us, but my four angels fought them off impressively. Alexei maneuvered his sword like he'd used it for centuries. Helga fought like a badass, slashing fools and cutting through anyone coming near us. James' knives vaulted forward, embedding into people's chests and throats. Gabriella's bow and arrows made her seem like Artemis, that Greek goddess of the Moon and Hunt.

I stood in the middle, an awkward turtle among lions and tigresses. I did occasionally slash off someone's arm if they got too close, but my friends had each other's backs, as well as mine.

One guy used his spear to pole vault over us and landed in the center, breaking up our little circle of defense. The others jumped or rolled away to avoid getting crushed by the massive idiot.

My legs froze to the floor. I stared on at him as if he were a museum exhibit.

He grinned. "New kids all cuddled up? Nice. Too bad I have to kill you now. Can't have you guys failing in Ragnarok because you can't fight."

I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Cuddling doesn't equal weakness, you hyper-masculine douchebag. Just ask Magnus!" My group and the people fighting them turned to stare at me. They simultaneously shot me a "What the fuck are you saying?" kind of look, and turned back to their battles.

The giant dude laughed. "Cute sentiment. It won't protect you, though." He thrust his spear forward, which nearly missed me by a few inches because I jumped to the side as fast as I could, despite my lack of reflexes.

The metal tip scratched at my shirt and tore it open as I slid to the side to avoid getting stabbed. The wooden dowel turned a little to the side, and the flat of the blade smacked me in the stomach just as I thought I was safe.

I adjusted my grip on my sword and quickly used the flat of it to push down the spear blade so I could keep the blade under my foot as I hacked through the length of the spear.

The guy scowled, roaring in anger when I cut through the five-foot hardwood dowel.

I lunged back when he yanked at the broken end of the spear to free the blade from my foot. He turned it into a sword, and I used what little athletic ability I had to keep cutting at the dowel until he just held the blade in his hand.

"I hate you kids."

I grinned at him when I saw Alexei approach the giant from behind. "Cute sentiment. But that won't protect you."

He snarled and lunged at me, but didn't get far, seeing as how Alexei's sword had shoved all the way through his chest. He looked down at the blade and then back at my friend, who waved sarcastically.

The giant man hit the floor with a resounding thump.

But Alexei was too busy gloating at the guy's apparent corpse to realize someone coming up behind him for a strike. In a purely instinctual move of fear, I yanked the Russian behind me and slashed at the girl with my sword, only realizing the heat and flames coming off of the metallic blade after she hit the ground, screaming about a burning sensation.

I frowned, my eyebrows furrowed as I tried to understand what she meant. I looked at my blade and nearly dropped it.

Red and gold fire licked at the blade, illuminating me and the area around me with yellow light. Worried that I would catch on fire, I tried to wave away the fire, only to quickly realize that the flames were coming off of the blade and not onto it. Alexei turned me around and lifted me up into a hug.

"Not the time for affection, idiots!" screamed Helga.

Having realized this weird new ability, I ran to her side. I didn't think much of it at the time, still not knowing what I had done. Instead, I merely focused on using it as a tool to help myself and my friends.

Less people came at us, but the danger was still present. The only things being thrown were knives and spears, except for an axe that nearly lodged itself into James' head.

The worst part of the fight was seeing my friends go down. Gabriella was the first to go. James got hit too. Both went out because of swords to their major body parts. I went next. I was helping Alexei try to fight off a child of Tyr whose best friend was a bloody axe, when an arrow landed in my skull. I was out like a light.

I really only remembered Alexei screaming and then silence and then darkness.

After a while, I woke up to cuddles.

* * *

A heavy arm over my waist, a body pressed against my back, lips and nose buried in the space behind my ear, legs curled up under mine. The person realized that my slumber had ended and slowly removed themselves from my body.

I looked over my shoulder to attempt to identify the person. I can definitely say I was shocked beyond belief to see Helga in all her badass-ness sitting up next to me on the bed.

She must have noticed my disbelief because she gave me a little sigh and patted my shoulder.

"Don't get used to it. There's only one bed in here, and I don't believe in sleeping on couches. Besides, you felt cool, and I really needed to soothe my skin."

I stared for a while longer before sitting up carefully. I didn't need to be careful, I realized.

Not an inkle of pain in my body, despite having died of an arrow to my head. "Wait, what happened?!"

She chuckled.

"You died. And now you're fine. Death is temporary here."

I sighed in relief, leaning against the headboard. "So you okay now? No more skin pain?"

She smiled. "Nope. My injuries were all minor. And I didn't die. So yes, I'm okay. The others all fell asleep sitting outside. I'll go get them." Helga stood up slowly, holding onto the bed frame as she pushed her legs over the edge.

My lips pursed. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Blue eyes shot me a glare, forcing me to back off and put my hands up in surrender. "Sorry, I just. You look like you're in pain…"

She resigned. "I know. I'm sorry I glared. But really, it's nothing major. Just discomfort. I have never fought like that."

I nodded and smiled, squeezing her free hand. "You can always come to me if you need anything."

Helga rolled her eyes, pressing a kiss to my forehead as she climbed off the bed. "I know. Now hush, I'll go get the others." For the first time, I examined the room my friends placed me into. It definitely wasn't my room. It looked like a hospital of sorts, all white and green and blue. Helga was right. The only real furniture in here was a small sofa and the bed I slept on.

There weren't any real pieces of furniture that served a functional purpose. An odd-looking stool that was too tall for anyone to use. A mini dresser with locked drawers.

I couldn't even identify any medical equipment or healthcare-related items at all in the room. It seemed barren, which had me a little worried because I didn't know how people got healed without other substances/objects, whether magical or not.

The door creaked open, and Alexei trotted to my side, leaning down to place a kiss on my forehead. "You feel okay?" I smiled and patted his arm.

"I'm fine. No biggie. What about you guys?"

Gabriella let out a frustrated groan as she sat opposite Alexei. "For once, shut the fuck up about helping everyone else and worry about yourself instead! You got killed, Flo!" Her eyebrows furrowed as her eyes narrowed to glare at me.

She softened when I pulled her in for a hug and gave her a friendly kiss on the cheek. "Ella, seriously. I'm fine. It was no worse than when I died the first time. Besides, what am I gonna do if I don't worry about you guys? That's the whole purpose of my existence."

"False!" exclaimed smol boi James, who sat next to Alexei and leaned in to hug me when I let go of Gabriella. "Your purpose is to do cool things like make fireworks and blow shit up. Not be a nurse-slash-mom for everyone else on the planet. You aren't a punching bag for the jackasses of the realms, so stop acting like it."

I winced. I got their point. I just didn't agree. "Sheesh."

He smiled and rubbed my hand gently after pulling back. "Gabriella and I say what we say because it sucks to see you keep sacrificing yourself for practically strangers when you died sacrificing your safety to protect close friends."

Helga huffed, sitting down on the rolly chair beside Gabriella. "They're right. You need to stop putting yourself in harm's way for no reason. We like you, but we like you better when you're alive. Okay?"

"You people have only known me for a few days. How the hell do you think you can automatically tell me to stop putting myself in danger the first time I get killed? You don't even know me yet."

Alexei smiled dimly. "If we want to do that, you need to be alive, right?"

I merely huffed in response, unable to clap back quick enough to counter his logical reasoning. "Fine. God, you guys make me so mad."

They collectively rolled their eyes at me like I was the douchebag. James pinched my cheek hard like my aunt used to do when I acted too cute. "Ouch!"

"You're not mad. You just can't believe us when we say we love you just because you got trust issues from your idiotic parental units constantly ditching you for idiotic reasons. You're scared to trust us because you think we're gonna disappear from your life like you disappeared from your friends' lives."

I couldn't believe my ears. "Bitch, what the fuck?!" The idiot had gotten everything right. In fact, I didn't even realize the second half was true until after I processed it.

He smiled, leaning in to kiss my pressure-reddened cheek. "I was studying to be a psych major when I died, Flo. I know things."

My hands flew up to cover my face. "I will never tell you my problems, you Freudian jackass."

A laugh burst from his throat. "You don't have to for me to know." I could only groan in frustration. But I could understand why he kept psychoanalyzing me.

When James died, he was about twenty. He'd begun studying at a local university in New York as a psychology major with a women's studies minor. In the middle of a class, he got an emergency call from his family, just his mom and younger brother, that someone had killed his stepdad. Excusing himself with a family emergency, James booked it back to his house to find that his family members had been killed by an armed robber. In a vengeful streak, he brutally murdered the robber with a knife from the kitchen, only to be killed moments later when the robber shot him in the stomach as retribution for stopping the robbery.

James' dying moments happened during his last-minute effort to try and fix his grief-stricken mind. He'd been trying to go through the phases of grief over his family's death faster so he could die without emotional trauma. But that was impossible. Too soon, his breath left him and he left Earth.

I understood his need to psychoanalyze me and fix my issues because I could tell he was making up for his own lack of support and understanding when he saw his family dead. He'd died a vengeful, loveless man. He didn't want that to happen to anyone in the afterlife, so he began foisting his plan on all of us to keep us mentally stable. Kinda dumb on his part, fixing things when he's broken, but we were all doing the same. It's like that thing where if you help someone with the issue you're having, you gain the confidence to deal with your own issue once they improve.

After a few moments of soft questions from my friends about how I felt, Magnus walked in. Alexei and James both stood up in a show of fear for the older child of Frey. He shook his head dramatically at their behavior, but didn't decline Alexei's seat closest to me. He smiled a bit when I sat up straighter to look at him.

"I know you're fine. You don't need to prove yourself to me. You said that yourself, remember?" I blushed when reminded of my words, but nodded. "You ready to come back out and face Valhalla?" My mouth dried, and I could only give a questioning croak. "Oh, not like that! No, I just meant, are you ready to deal with them again. Like, do you feel prepared to do normal stuff again." I calmed only slightly.

"I dunno. I want to. I don't wanna be in here and have them think I'm weak or anything-"

Helga protested calmly, "And we know you're not."

I continued. "-but I'm nervous about what they'll think of me."

Magnus tilted his head to the side, a curious smile on his lips. "You care now? You didn't care yesterday. It seemed like the opposite was true."

My eyes turned downwards. I couldn't look at him if I had to say these words. "I know. But I'm worried about how my dumb ass getting killed so soon or so lamely is going to reflect on these guys. They're awesome. Great fighters. I don't want anyone to hurt their rep just because I can't do shit."

Gabriella squeezed my hand. "You don't reflect on us. Your behavior only reflects who you are. We're all a little messed up. We, the four of us, don't all care about people we don't know. But you do. Your behavior reflects how much good you have in you."

Helga smiled faintly, lips curved up at the edges. "The first time we met, you held my hand when you saw I was worried about dying here. You only knew me by name and death. But you comforted me anyways. That speaks large volumes about you."

"Even better, you comforted me when you didn't even know my name. That wasn't me, that was you. You're the one with a good heart. You're the one who cares. Damn the others. I could care less what they say about me, because nothing I do will ever mimic your willingness to help people for no reason at all except because they need help," teased Alexei. He smiled with his eyes only, but the twitch of his jaw showed he held back a chuckle or two.

James shrugged. "You defended my ideas, and you didn't know me. We don't talk as much as you and Alexei, but you care. Enough for me. I mean, you care enough to let me sleep against you within hours of knowing me. Who else is going to do that?"

Magnus' eyes twinkled in this ugly, almost fluorescent light. "See? Told you so. If you're ready, come out to lunch. You took a long time to heal. If not, get into a bigger room and your group and mine can hang together. You need some peace of mind before you face this stressful Viking life again. And Sam's coming too."

I raised an eyebrow, trying my hardest not to smile so he would take me kind of seriously. "How is hearing that Sam is there gonna make me feel better?"

He snorted. "You kidding? She's called you worse things than she's ever called me. She's not there for your comfort. She's there to make us laugh when you make things depressing or sappy as hell for no reason at all."

I thought about protesting, but Helga squinted at me as if she could hear my mind. "Yes you do. Don't give us that look. You do that all the time."

Helpless to her judgement, I turned to James, who nodded, smiling softly. "Yeah. You totally do. I mean, it's so cute that you're so concerned about our emotional health, but seriously, girl. You talk too much about bad shit, and you end up sounding like a sad bitch when you should actually be a savage."

Alexei sniffed, looking down at James with fond annoyance. "Don't you ever dare quote Ariana Grande in my presence. She doesn't appreciate true hip hop." At the immediate silence that followed his words, he rolled his eyes. "It's quite popular in Russia because it's like a social movement or protest thing. We use American genres of music, like hip-hop, to protest government bullshit. Like how African Americans use rap to defend and promote their well-deserved rights in the States."

"...I was not expecting to hear that," admitted Mango. We all affirmed that statement.

Alexei simply shrugged. "I may be whiter and more Russian than the Siberian winter, but that does not mean I am not woke."

We kind of stood in awe at this man. James and I snuck glances at one another before exclaiming at the same time, "I fucking love you." The snowy boi responded by patting James' shoulder and kissing my forehead. "Thank you. That's very kind."

Awkward silence.

To break the quiet, Gabriella cupped her hands over her lips and made a sound like crickets chirping. We all just grinned and watched in extreme interest. "How can you do that?!" Helga asked.

Our favorite Latina einherjar winked. "A magician never tells their secrets, Helga."

More awkward silence.

Magnus laughed nervously and looked at the five of us. "Soo, big group hangout?" I nodded. He sighed in relief, "Cool…this is so awkward."

"Just leave, Magnus. You made it awkward."

With a huff and a puff, my idiotic half-brother left the room so we could look at one another and laugh. Best morning-after of a death ever.


	5. Chapter 5: Fought

I've Never Seen

Now, I didn't know too much about the Norse afterlife, but from what I could tell, I saw that death happened every day, and that fact startled no one except us new kids. People healed so quickly after death that it seemed as if death feared the einherji, instead of the other way around.

I didn't feel any pain when I woke up, except for some minor headaches from the bright lights and the occasional ache or burn in my muscles after the hard fight.

But even that slight complaint about muscle aches had my muscle-heads carrying me down to the cuddle room as if I'd lost all feeling in my legs. They immediately assumed any pain was bad pain and didn't let me walk for three weeks, no joke.

While Alexei would literally carry me like I was a princess, James would sit me down on a wheelchair (I assume they were for the physically disabled einherji, though I'm not sure they exist). Helga - not even kidding about this one - threw me over her shoulder and then put me in a chair every time I tried to get up for some water or food. Gabriella was a bit better, not carrying me, but helping me walk everywhere, though even that was unnecessary.

And every time they set me down, they'd kiss some part of my face once (though never my lips) and tell me to walk before I run. And when I retorted that they wouldn't even let me walk, they'd laugh and kiss my face again.

That first day I was awake, the five of us curled up in that huge bed again, except this time, we leaned against one of the walls. Alexei, being the biggest of us five, rested against the back of the cushioned walls. I was pulled against him, my back pressed to his chest, as the others piled around me. Helga sat between my legs with her back to me, leaning so lightly against me, as if afraid any weight would shatter my bones. James and Ella sat on either side of Alexei and coiled up against him.

After we got settled, Magnus and his buddies came in and entered our bed. The couples kind of stayed together, but everyone sat a little apart and a little close. Far enough to have personal space, but close enough that they could reach for one another if needed.

Immediately, I saw the difference between our two groups. Magnus and his friends had established, confident relationships with one another, where romance and friendship were very distinct, and each team member knew where they stood and what role they played.

We didn't have such a strong emotional foundation. My friends and I kept close together, melded against one another for comfort. We had known each other for less time than Magnus' team had, and we relied on each other in every waking moment. But for us, romance and friendship weren't defined. We dabbled in both for the longest time without knowing it.

(It's different now, but from when I first joined until my first year completed, I didn't think there would be any romance at all, much less with all of my friends.)

The first words from Magnus' team were "You guys are awful close for having met a few months ago." Sam's somewhat curious and confused words didn't go unnoticed.

Magnus rolled his eyes. "They've been like this since the first day they met, Sam. This is by no means new or shocking."

Fierro simply winked at Sam. "These guys got more going on than we ever will. In more ways than one."

Alexei huffed, pale lips pursed together. "English, please? Not all of us are fluent in whatever language you just spoke." I couldn't help but giggle and snort at that. Ella pinched my cheeks, and it took all of Alexei's patience to not join in her coddling and actually stop her. "Leave her alone. Let her laugh like a maniac all she wants. No need to baby her."

"That's funny, because Flo says you guys were babying her in that room," teased Blitzen.

My peeps glared at me, various colors of eyes stabbing knives into my pretty little skull. I could only smile sheepishly and shrug, laughs spilling over my lips when I couldn't take their anger seriously. James broke first, laughing along with me before pressing a hard, wet kiss to my cheek. "You're ridiculous."

I winked. "You mean awesome. But yes, that too."

Helga sighed, German accent punctuating her biteless words. "Put your ego away for five seconds, Flo. Maybe then I'd be willing to indulge in your childish shenanigans."

"You love my childish shenanigans!" I pretended to sound scandalized.

She snorted. "I love seeing you happy. But that never means I enjoy you messing with me. Especially not during training. Had you had any more bodily coordination, I would have been more startled and would have accidentally killed you when you snuck up on me last week."

"Oooh, tough crowd," I joked. No one except Fierro laughed, and they were laughing at me because no one thought my joke was funny. "You guys totally suck. Absolute sticks in the mud."

Magnus snickered under his breath when Halfborn's laughter boomed through the room. "We thought Sam was serious, but Helga is a whole new deal, and the little Russian too."

Without thinking, practically by reflex, I lunged forward (accidentally squishing Helga in the process) and punched my right hand forward. A baseball-sized shot of fire flew out from my skin and rushed past the Viking's head, singeing the hairs of his beard and head. My lips had pulled back in what James described later as a ruthless sneer. "You watch your tongue! Just because I joke around and insult these guys doesn't mean you can. Mind your word, Beserker. You may be strong, but that doesn't mean I'll sit and cower while you insult my family."

Halfborn didn't react to my words, but he'd flinched when the fireball approached him. He winced at the feeling of his aching, fire-blackened skin when he touched a hand to his beard. "Sheesh. Clearly you and Magnus are different kinds of protective. He'd work past any enemy to defend us. You'd burn a building to the ground because someone insulted one of your people."

I scowled. "Unlike many people, I do care what people think of my friends. I don't care what people think of me, because my ego knows no bounds, but my friends, yes. If you guys start insulting them and don't let it go even after these hours we'll hang out, they'll earn a bad rep here. And bad reputations travel faster than good ones. So the moment they try to do something good, some idiot will find a reason to tear down their ideas because their reputation precedes them. And my people won't be able to do what they need to to help others. Consequences exist for everything. So, like I said earlier. Watch your fucking tongue."

Helga pushed me back again and leaned into me, wrapping her arms around my waist like she did when we slept together. "Hush now. That was kind of you, but please don't start any fights. You're already warm from anger. We don't need a fire right now."

The surprising gentile of her voice melted away any residual anger writhing deep in my mind. I relaxed easily, letting myself rest back against Alexei as Helga rubbed my forearms and knuckles.

James smiled a bit, his own hand slowly brushing through my hair. "Easy. Just chill. We don't need to light more people on fire than you already did last night. Pyromaniac."

I chuckled a little, poking his cheek. "So the guy with a dagger fetish is telling _me_ to chill." He just laughed.

Magnus laughed at Halfborn's burnt hair and grinned at me. "You sure you're not the leader among you guys?"

A wink and a smirk. "Maggie Noodle, I don't need to be team leader to have the authority, protectiveness, or even power to fry you guys like bacon. I can do that as a follower. Nothing's stopping me from tearing down Valhalla with nothing but my fists, blood, and fire if anyone hurts these guys. You don't need to rule a kingdom to have power over that kingdom. Plenty of queens throughout history ruled more than the kings they married. Same way, I don't need to lead these guys for me to protect them with my life."

"So who does lead? It's kind of easier to have one person make the shots during a fight rather than each person."

Helga said Alexei, but the rest of us said Helga. She stared. James shrugged. "Daughter of Tyr, a good fighter, general badassery. You got it all. Of course we want you to lead."

When our girl hesitated at the sudden promotion, I smiled. "Honey. You have the strong will, organization, and commandeering quality that's needed to lead. That, and you take care of us when I can't. You're a good person to lead. I wouldn't be. Too hot-headed, literally and figuratively, too brash, too solo-act. You'd be better by a longshot."

Alexei spoke quietly, trying his best to reassure her. "It is for the best. We want you to lead. We like you and, because of that, want you to lead. You're smart, a quick thinker even under stress. Flo is too emotional to think strategically under stress. Gabriella isn't yet comfortable with herself. James is afraid of the responsibility. I am sick of leading people into failure. You have a better chance than any of us of doing it right."

"You guys are so cute," commented Mallory. My group of five collectively gave her a look, and her hands flew up in surrender. "Sorry, sorry! Just ruined your moment. I get it."

I rolled my eyes and leaned back against Alexei, humming when the giant hugged my shoulders from behind and perched his chin on my head. "It's whatever. We good, guys? Helga's the team head?" Nods from my other three. "Good. Now, why exactly did you wanna meet here, Mango?"

The blond-haired hero covered his face with his hands. "Dammit, guys. Why does that have to be a thing?"

Fierro snickered and patted Magnus' back. "Because it's funny. But seriously, why are we here?"

He eventually manned up and looked around at all of us. "I want our two teams to get to know each other better. Flo is a kid of Frey, so she's part of the family. She and I don't know each other well, but we have talked. But I don't know anyone from her side. Not to mention, they could use some guidance from us, since we've been at this awhile."

I looked at my people, who tensed and tightened around me. "Hey, hey, what's wrong? Guys?"

They peeked at one another and then turned back to me, each whispering softly so only I could hear. Ella's voice floated to my ears over the small space between us. "I'm not sure I like the idea of them getting close to us. What if they learn about our pasts? I don't want them to start telling people things…"

My bewilderment did not escape her eyes. "Honey, why would they do that? Believe me, I won't let that happen. Your stories are safe with me, okay? I promise." I had a feeling she had hidden something from us when the five of us spewed our guts to each other on that first night we slept together, and I felt that the hidden thing was the reason she was scared these guys would know about her past.

Ella gazed up at my face one last time before settling against Alexei again and letting him press a hesitant kiss to her hairline. I kept watching to see if she would react, and in a pleasant turn of events, Gabriella smiled at him.

I returned my eyes to the rest of my people, who all clung to some part of me for a few minutes. "Are we okay with this, guys? Are we okay with Magnus and his peeps spending more time with us?"

Alexei nodded. "It would be good to have more allies in this place where I know none but you four." Helga nodded in agreement. James bit his lip, still unsure about the whole thing, but eventually conceded, making a little comment to the other team. "But we still would prefer to spend more time with each other. As cool as you all are, I really want to grow what we five have here. I mean, we've bonded. I wanna see how far that bond goes. I've never had anything like this, so I guess I just want to see what'll come of this."

Mallory's explanation came as a relief to my teammates. "You guys can still spend as much time together as you want, but we want to be able to train you guys, teach you how the game works. All we ask is a couple of hours with you wee things so you can learn the ropes and not go into your mission blind and deaf."

A few moments of silence that felt like hours.

I looked around at everyone. "How do we feel about a movie?"

* * *

So, in that dark room, with comfort and warmth in the form of pillows and blankets surrounding us, we all huddled together to watch some kind of superhero movie. I think it was from DC or something. I wasn't particularly interested, but Alexei and Helga were enamored with the film. Magnus' people just watched us instead of the movie, examining our interactions and behavior.

At one point, it grew a bit cold in the vast space of that room, and Ella asked me to be a heater again. I had no objections to that, so I kept myself close to my people and let myself warm up.

The feeling of changing my temperature is kind of weird. Imagine getting a fever. Hot, sweaty, uncomfortable, right? Now imagine not feeling uncomfortable or sweaty while you have a fever. Just pure heat and warmth. That's what it's like. It's like being hot without feeling discomfort.

Mallory and Halfborn realized halfway through the movie that the sudden heat in the room was coming from me. My team had moved away from me a little to keep warm without getting sweaty. The two friends of Mango Cheesecake gazed at me curiously. "Is that you heating up the room?"

I grinned. They set themselves up there. "Is it just me or is this room getting hotter naturally? That's what you're asking? Yes, it's just me."

Sam rolled her eyes at me and lobbed a decorative pillow at my head. Helga caught it before it reached my face and placed it on my lap so she could lie down on it and keep herself close to me to stay warm and comfortable.

Alexei pinched me. "Shhhh."

The five of us resumed our huddling when I lowered my body temperature to not use too much energy.

Blitz peeked over at us. "You guys comfortable? You're squishing Flo."

I tossed him a wink. "Aww, thanks for your concern, honey. But I'm fine. I'm used to this. Besides, I love cuddles."

Fierro looked at James. "Man, you guys are real close. How warm does she get?"

He shrugged. "Not sure. We haven't tested her limits yet. But I do know she gets warm enough to cause second-degree burns and fires."

"Good to know. You got better control over it now. Nice job," complimented Fierro, an impish smile on their face as they looked at me. "How long did it take you?"

"Forever. Alexei is a good trainer, but soooooo persistent."

The giant of a young man chuckled. "You're just a slow learner."

I huffed. "I should break up with you right now."

He rolled his eyes. "You should have gone into acting, what with all your silly theatrics."

"I don't do theatrics!"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Flo, who are you trying to fool? We don't even know you that well, and we all agree with him about your theatrics."

"You guys are just jealous."

Fierro snickered, "Not of you, that's for sure."

I pouted and crossed my arms, trying to avoid Alexei (in vain) because he insulted my very existence. Helga scowled and shoved me back when I tried to lean forward against her. At least Ella was nice enough to pat my head and call me stupid instead of physically abuse me. James was completely useless, cooing like an idiot at Helga's irritated expression, which he thought was adorable for some reason.

Magnus raised an eyebrow at our weirdness, a peculiar smile on his lips. "I totally should introduce you to Annabeth. I wonder what she'd think of you."

"I don't know who she is, but she sounds cute," I guessed. I really wasn't sure what I thought of this 'Annabeth' girl, but I hoped she was nice. And not as boring as Magnus, who is currently pouring mead over my head for what I just wrote. (Fuck off, bro. I say what I want. This is my story, not yours. Go complain to Fierro.)

He laughed. "Annabeth is my cousin from New York. Real cool. She and her boyfriend actually go to a camp for kids like us, except that camp's gods are Greek, not Norse."

"Um. What?" I truly couldn't believe my ears. Instead of just one weird godly pantheon, now there was more?!

Sam grinned. "Mind-blowing. I know. But gods of all pantheons exist in one area or another. The Norse chose Boston. The Greeks chose New York. The Romans, like they usually do in straying far from the others but trying to stay close in a weird way, chose California. The Egyptian gods, which I heard from Annabeth's boyfriend Percy, apparently chose Brooklyn. So you know. There's a lot of gods, and a lot of magical teens. All of them are needed to fight evil forces."

I just stared into space, my mind barely able to comprehend what my hijabi friend had just told me. And a thought clicked in my head, anxiety running through my veins. "So uh…it's possible that even the Indian and Chinese and other pantheons exist too?"

"Why not? All of these exist," reasoned Magnus.

My hands grasped at my head, and I looked at my four best buddies. "Guys, I'm gonna die."

Alexei seemed puzzled by my words, but Helga had put it all together and was comforting me in seconds. "No you won't. And if anyone tries to kill you, we have your back. Stop being afraid of consequences that may never happen. You have us four on your side. You need no one else to protect you."

I paused. "That was weirdly territorial, but I don't think I mind it."

James snorted. "Okay, who else do you have a crush on?"

I reached around and grasped at his collar, "James, I swear to the gods, you are seconds away from getting murdered!", but he laughed himself out of my hands. He squeezed both my hands and kissed the knuckles gently before setting them on my face.

"Stop stressing out. Your worries are founded. But, that death shit is like, way too far away for it to matter now. Okay? Relax. That's what we're all here to do. Relax," crooned my sweetest friend. Seriously, James is a godsend (pun intended). We don't deserve him. "Now. Shut up and let's watch another movie."

Blitzen piped up, "Can we watch something besides superhero movies?"

I shouted "THE PRINCESS DIARIES!" at the same time that Helga screamed "SAVING PRIVATE RYAN!" at the same time that Fierro screeched "MULAN!"

It was a whole mess. The three of us ended up doing rounds of rock-paper-scissors to determine the next movie.

Fierro won.

Every time there was a song playing, I sang at the top of my lungs with James, who did multiple duets with me. We switched every song for who sang melody and who sang harmony. It was awesome. Everyone scowled at us, but we ignored them.

At the end of the movie, everyone started yawning and stretching their limbs as they stood to return to their rooms. My group of four decided to stay back and hang out awhile.

As Magnus walked off, I ran after him, calling his name. I just wanted to spend more time with my brother and learn exactly what Frey had told him about me. Or if he knew anything at all. I could hear my friends cooing and laughing at me for trying to be closer with my half-brother. I looked back at them over my shoulder and they snickered, wiggling their fingers goodbye at me.

I rolled my eyes and caught up with the tall blonde. "Magnus! Wait up!"

He stopped and turned at the sound of his name. He smiled a bit and waited for me. "What's up?"

We walked in step together once I reached his position. "I just wanted to hang out with you for a little while. Is that okay? Are you busy?"

He stopped again, shooting me a curious look. I got nervous and didn't say anything. At my continued silence, his gaze grew more suspecting. I whined, "I just wanna get to know my brother. Is that so suspicious?"

"You never know. You really can't be sure with anyone except your friends."

"Fair enough. So? Can we hang out?"

Magnus rubbed his chin a little and nodded. "Sure. Might as well. Better that we know each other and talk than ignore each other. Where do you wanna go?"

"I have no idea."

He laughed and led me back to his room. "Okay then. Let's not go outside just yet. You're not ready."

"Fine by me. I have no desire to fall into an eternal abyss just because I sat on that tree's branch."

We walked up to his room and sat down on the bed once inside. "What did you want to talk about? Any topic in particular?"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "I'm really not sure. Just tell me stuff. Your life story, since I already told you mine."

He smiled and chuckled. "Fine."

And so he told his stories. I just sat in awe, looking at him with wide eyes and agape mouth at hearing all of his quests and tales and adventures. Easily, Magnus was the coolest person to ever exist. So when that expression didn't leave my face even after he'd finished his stories, Magnus stared at me. "What is it?"

I shook my head a little and sat back, grinning widely. To my extreme irritation, my voice was breathless when I spoke. "You're so cool."

The blonde grinned as well and patted my shoulder. "Thanks. You're not bad yourself. Hey, so did Dad talk to you?"

My smile melted a little, but I nodded. "Yeah. That first day me and my people hung out, he came to us. I thought it was one of the older einherji teasing me because I said I wasn't the child of Frey. I turned around to yell at the guy and Frey was standing there. We were all kind of confused and surprised. The other bowed. He and I talked for a little bit. He unintentionally guilt-tripped me, and we hugged for a few minutes, and he gave me kisses and then left."

Magnus sighed, rubbing his hands on the thighs of his blue jeans. "That's cool. Visited you in person? Seems like he was super excited."

I shrugged. "He said he didn't know I even existed. Mom prayed to Odin and begged him to hide my identity from Frey and to change the memories of whatever family adopted me so it would seem like I was always a part of them. I guess he just wanted to see me in person?"

Magnus stared at me with wide eyes. "He didn't know you existed? Wow. Um, yeah. No wonder he wanted to see you in person. That's insane."

"I guess. Did Dad come to you in person ever?"

He shook his head. "Only in dreams. He was off preparing for Ragnarok. I guess he's more open to visiting us in person since it got postponed a little. I suppose you wanna find your mom now?"

My teeth chewed at the inside of my cheek. "I don't know…I'm not sure if I want to meet the woman who gave me away to a family and made sure not even my dad could find me."

"She did it to protect you, right?"

"But she could have told Dad! Something, anything! She kept it all from him. He and I didn't know about one another until after I died. It's a brutal move, Magnus. I don't know if I can forgive her for that."

He smiled gently and reached a hand out to touch my shoulder. "If you ever want to see her, let me know. I got some connections with demigods from the Greek world down in New York. They can help you find her."

I mustered as bright a smile as I could, squeezing the hand on my shoulders. "Thanks, Magnus. You're the best big brother ever."

"I'm your only big brother," he laughed after sending me a wink.

"False!" I proclaimed. I scooted closer and sat next to him, leaning on the headboard. "I had older male cousins when I was alive. They can be considered my older brothers too. So no. You are not the only one, but you are, by far, the best one."

He shrugged, hesitantly wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "Fine. I'll take it." He sighed before asking his next question. "How far are you with your powers?"

At this, I gave him my biggest grin. "I can control the fire stuff much better now. Not enough to do any micro work, but I can definitely fight with it and stuff. Alyoshenka has yet to teach me stuff, though. I have yet to see if I have ice powers too. Two extremes, ya know?"

He grinned. "So, how close are you and this 'Alyoshenka'?"

I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Magnus snorted. "Oh come on. You two are definitely something. You guys together?"

My face, which doesn't even tan, turned redder than I thought biologically possible. "What?! We're just friends! Why would you think that?"

He smirked. "First off, you both already have nicknames for each other."

"I have nicknames for all of my friends."

"Touché. You two are always holding hands or something similar," he seemed to gloat triumphantly.

"We need emotional support, so we hold hands."

Magnus whined, "You literally let him hug and kiss your face even though you haven't known him for more than a few days at this point."

"I let all of my friends do that."

He huffed. "I'll win eventually. I promise."

"Cheesecake, baby, you can try all you want. You shall never win."

Magnus scowled. "You're the worst."

I winked and laughed hard, almost bending over at the waist completely. "False, again!"

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "So what else do you do besides torment me?"

I smiled, sitting up again. "I love music. I have a man voice when I sing, so I don't do it often unless I'm alone in my room. I love dancing way more. But I'm not super good at it. Only the classical Indian stuff my mom made me do as a kid. I like reading, but writing is a nightmare for me. I was learning how to crochet from my cousin, who knitted sweaters and other things for her newborn daughter. She said I was a quick learner and that I could do it well within a few months of learning."

"I expected everything except the crocheting. Is it fun?"

I shrugged. "It's not exactly a fun activity. It's pretty monotonous. But I like how relaxing it is. I can ignore the world burning around me and just crochet to my heart's delight."

He nodded, humming as he pulled a pillow up to cushion his back. "I was always more of an outside kid. My mom loved nature and trekking and hiking and all that stuff. She and I were constantly on the run, so we never stayed in one place long enough for me to take interest in inside activities. Even now, I can't stay cooped up for long. I love just going out and seeing and doing stuff."

I smiled. "Polar opposites, it seems. I just don't like the outside. Too much going on at once."

He asked, "Sensory overload?"

"For a quiet, dumbass kid like me? Absolutely. It's a headache, all the sounds and sights and smells. Obnoxious. I guess you can't stand the silence, so you like being out and about, part of nature."

"Yeah. Makes me feel closer to mom and dad, ya know? Like being where they loved to be helps me feel close to them," he explained. There was no distress on his face. Just peace. I hoped to someday be that at peace and that serene in my own life.

I sighed. "I dunno. My real mom gave me away before I could know her. Dad only recently learned of my existence. I don't really feel close to anyone except my group. They're my family. My life. My everything."

Magnus had a peculiar expression on his face, as if something I said made him change his mind about something. I couldn't tell what, but the look was only slightly unsettling.

"I didn't need to try hard to feel close with Dad. His entire schtick is the outside world. Nature and earth and surroundings. That's his whole deal. And since I was raised to love it, I felt close to him when I met him. You never had that previous experience of nature and stuff, so you can't feel his direct influence. But there's definitely something that'll help you keep close to him."

I shook off my arms to loosen the tightened muscles. "Maybe. I don't know what it could be."

Magnus smiled, rubbing my back. "Maybe it's your love of being somewhere warm. Maybe it's being somewhere quiet in the world, where you can feel the life and energy around you. It doesn't have to be anything physical, you know. Maybe it's your constant need to help and protect your own. Maybe it's your desire to be close to those you care about. Maybe it's just your powers and how without both extremes of fire and famine versus cold and flooding, nature would go unchecked. It can be anything."

My eyes slowly filled with tears at his words. I could only lean back and into his side, curling my hands into the soft fabric of Magnus' shirt. He seemed surprised, based on how he stiffened when I tucked myself under his arm. But he slowly wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pressed my head to his chest.

I hadn't realized my tears until Magnus rubbed my back and cooed at me when I let out a sob. "Oh, Flo. Kid…it's okay. It's gonna be okay. Flower…come on, now. Where's the pain?"

He rested a warm, heavy hand on my upper back, rubbing heat and sunlight into me as an attempt to keep me calm.

"In my heart. I just…none of my families stayed with me. None of them. Dad doesn't know what to do with me. Mom gave me away. My two families are lies. My friends on Earth are either suffering or happier without me. I'm a liability to the friends I have now. This is bullshit. I just wanted to die and forget about life. Why is death so much worse than life?"

He spoke gently, his voice filling my head like the soothing rumble of thunder during a storm. "Because everyone prepares you for what to expect in life. No one prepares you for what to expect in death. You didn't know anything about yourself until you died, Flo. You're lost and scared. You're overwhelmed. You're scared of failure and war and everything else around you. What you need is a reprieve from all of this. We'll go somewhere, okay? We'll bring whoever you want and we'll figure out a way to give you some peace. That okay?"

I sniffled, my tears slowing as the ache in my chest lifted slowly. Magnus was truly a god among men. He rubbed my back and let me hold onto him as long as I needed. I pulled back once I knew I would be okay. I rubbed away the tears on my face and sniffled, breathing deeply to clear my throat and nose. "Thanks, Magnus. Seriously. I don't know where I would be without you."

As if unsure of himself, he leaned forward and awkwardly kissed the border between my hairline and my temple. "Probably crying alone in a room while having an extreme panic attack."

I rolled my eyes, but laughed. "Probably true."

The door opened to reveal Alex standing there in their green and pink glory. "Hey guys! Uh, what just happened here?"

I gave a wet smile. "I had a breakdown, and Magnus helped me. You're lucky to have this angelic, idiotic man in your life."

Alex's face softened greatly. They walked over and sat beside Magnus, placing a hand on my arm. "What happened, Flo?"

As if knowing by intuition that I wouldn't tell, Magnus explained what had just happened. Alex leaned forward and hugged me briefly, patting my cheek affectionately. "Kiddo, you can always always come to us for help, okay? Magnus is kinda slow, but I totally get your struggles. I promise. If you wanna talk, all of Floor Nineteen is willing to listen. Family of Magnus is family to all of us."

I smiled and wiped away the last of my tears. "Thanks, Alex. You're awesome. I really appreciate that."

They smiled and cooed, pretending to pinch my cheek like a grandma before leaning back against Magnus.

I sniffed. "So how do you have a key to Maggie Noodle's room? I thought no one had access to anything beyond their own room."

The green haired badass smirked. "Magnus and I made keys to our rooms for each other in case of emergency. We're the most dysfunctional people on the floor, so we gotta help each other out."

"So, you two are dating and because it's too much work to move in together, decided to get extra keys for one another's rooms."

"Basically, yeah."

I smiled and sat back carefully, observing the two love birds contently. "How long have you guys been together?"

Magnus shrugged, curling an arm around his partner. "About a year. Alex joined Floor Nineteen quite a bit later than we did, so he was out of the loop for a little while. But once we all got to doing a mission, he fit right into our dynamic."

My eyes wandered as he spoke, and I sat in awe of the beautiful, nature-inspired theme of Magnus' room. "I'm not sure I'll ever fit in the Floor Nineteen dynamic. Just not my cup of tea. I hope you understand."

The blond nodded. "At first, I was really unsure about you hanging with those other new kids. But you guys definitely have something special. I don't want to break that up and try to force a group on you. Just be careful and stay alert. Trust your intuition. Being a demigod has some perks, despite the many downsides. We can sense when something's gonna go wrong a bit faster than most people can. Just keep an eye out for weird behavior, okay? People can deceive you without your knowledge."

"I will. I have a question, though." I bit my lip and looked at my seniors carefully.

Alex grinned. "Ask on, young padawan."

"How do you know when you have to go on a quest?"

Magnus groaned. "I hate giving this answer. But it's when you can clearly see that no one else will do it. There's always something to be done when it comes to the gods. They always have tasks for us. You can identify a quest when you see how no other einherji wants to do the job."

I nodded, pondering his answer awhile. "Gotcha. Okay. Thanks, Magnus. It's been really helpful to talk to you."

He reached a hand out and patted my cheek, an angelic smile coming to his face again. "No problem at all, little sis."

I returned his warm look. "You're the best, big bro. See ya later." I got to my feet and walked out of the door, making my way to the elevator to return to my group.

When the elevator dinged and opened, revealing the first floor, my feet began in a sprint to find my friends. I didn't locate them until one of the Valkyries told me my group of four were sitting in one of the meeting rooms deeper in Valhalla, speaking seriously about something. She directed me to the room, and I went into a full rush to reach my friends.

My little family of four huddled around a table as a projector showed a slideshow of images displaying various Norse monsters. I only recognized the Kraken and mermaid. Otherwise, I had no clue what I was looking at. I knocked on the doorframe before stepping into the room. Their eyes shot up to me at the sound of my knocks. Big grins split some of their faces. I smiled back nervously. "So uh. What exactly are you guys doing?"

Ella held an arm out for me and winked. "Come sit with us, babe. We'll explain everything." Ignoring her little nickname, I walked closer and plopped myself down in the swivel chair beside hers. She curled an arm tightly around my shoulders.

"What we've been doing is talking about a quest," she crooned. I giggled a little. So weirdly coincidental that Magnus and I were just talking about quests not even five minutes ago. "Jamie, care to explain?"

James sighed and pulled out a little notebook from his pocket. It was covered in chicken-scratch handwriting and little doodles. "Okay, so I always keep a little tracker of everything people say when they think I can't hear them. Today, I overheard someone talking unnecessarily loudly about how someone stole Lady Freya's war spear. She's apparently put out a huge reward of red gold made from her tears for anyone who retrieves it."

I grumbled at hearing that. I didn't like the idea of doing stuff for money. At least, not life-threatening stuff. I'm not a bloodhound searching for an opportunity to get easy cold hard cash. I'm just a kid trying to get my life together. "So what, now we're bounty hunters? Just doing this for the money?"

Ella pinched my side. "Don't be stupid. We never said that. Don't put words in our mouths, doll. The reason we know about it is because other people heard of the huge reward Freya was laying out. We can do it for free. Maybe for the honor. Imagine how good we'll look if we say no to the reward and tell Freya we're just in it to help?"

"First off, you'll be liars," I snorted. "Second, you know the hotel keeps video footage of everything happening everywhere, right?"

Alexei grunted. "We know. They just don't seem to care. What we want to know is whether or not you want to go. You said you need to talk to Freya. This is an easy out for you. Do the quest. Retrieve the spear. Save the day. Talk to your Aunt and figure out who you are. Isn't that a good deal?"

My feet hadn't stopped tapping since I sat down. And suddenly, when I heard his words, they stopped. "Maybe. But is it worth all the danger?"

Helga, who had remained silent since I walked in, asked quietly, "There is danger at every turn, Flo. Danger is unavoidable in this life. That's what they're trying to teach us, and what I learned from this place. What I'm trying to learn from you are your risk-reward views. What is worth the danger for you? Saving your friends? Saving your family? Saving yourself? Saving your reputation? What's worth the danger?"

I groaned. "Always the philosophical questions with you guys." My hands clenched into claws and relaxed a few times in that moment.

My fingers sparked and caught fire as my mind slowly zeroed in on them. I sat back a little and let the flames grow to envelop my hands. And within seconds, they extinguished. My eyes met the others'.

"I'll go. I don't have any other means of figuring out who I am, what I'm meant to be, what I can do. I need to talk to Freya. She's the only one who can help me that is also accessible to me. So yeah. I'll go with you guys. I'll say this, though. Helga is definitely the leader here. She knows how to organize and direct us. But if push comes to shove, and things go downhill in a way we can't rectify, I'm making the decision to save you guys. Out of all of us, I've probably got the best chances of surviving whatever it is, just considering my parentage. So you guys don't get to start making sacrificial moves until after I've made mine. Got it?"

Alexei tensed. James gritted his teeth and looked away. I tried to give them soft smiles and to look into their eyes. They didn't even glance at me. I turned to try and look gently at Helga and Ella, but the ladies just scowled, eyes dark and serious before flitting away.

"Why do you need to do this to us?" hissed Alexei. I froze. I'd never heard him so angry or cold before. It was one kind of anger I saw when he was talking about his sister and her assaulters. It was another anger just at that moment.

I slowly looked up at him and jumped back a little, startled at seeing him leaned forward over the table, his hands pressed to the shiny wood as ever-changing ocean eyes flashed ice blue with his rage.

"You know we care about you. You know we want to protect you. Why won't you let us do that?" he growled, lips pulled back in an animalistic sneer that revealing gleaming white teeth. "Do you like seeing us worry to death for your safety and well-being? Or do you just want us to get angry enough to never let you out of our sight? What's your deal?!" At the end, he stood up straight and punched his fist through a wall, letting out a shout of desperate anger.

I snarled, unable to hold back my own wrath. I didn't know why I couldn't stop, but it was hard to keep my thoughts in when I was getting yelled at. "This isn't about you guys! For fuck's sake, Alexei, turn off your goddamned ego and think about me for a second! I already lost everything! I lost the only family I ever fucking had! And now I have you guys. Hate to break it to you, _buddy_ , but you guys aren't even worth half of what those guys meant to me! NOT EVEN HALF. So don't ever fucking tell me I want you guys to worry. I don't give a shit! What I want is to figure out my goddamn purpose in life so I can take care of that _and leave._ I just want to die! Is that so much to ask?! Eternal peace! And you're acting like me giving my life is breaking up a family! YOU AREN'T MY FAMILY! YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ME ENOUGH TO BE MORE THAN GOOD FRIENDS!"

When I turned my gaze (more like glare) to the rest of my friends, they either looked hurt or scared or angry, or all of the above. My eyes returned to Alexei to find him in a bigger rage than when I first started yelling. He composed himself and murmured softly, "If you don't see us as family, you don't need us. So go back to your floor and go quest with them. You ruined a perfectly smooth meeting."

Those words hurt more than anything else he'd already said. Far worse than any of his first angry statements. Biting my lip to stop the tears, I nodded, stood up, and walked out of that room. I could hear James calling my name as I closed the door behind me, but I ignored him.

I walked back to my room in silence, heart hurting and a thick lump closing off my throat. My feet trudged back to the elevator, where six other einherji waited for me to get in. I kept my head down as I stepped inside. The doors shut behind me, and my feet brought me to the corner of the elevator. One of the guys who noticed my expression asked what was wrong. I smiled weakly and mumbled through my tears that it was nothing, just a disagreement with some friends. He sighed, smiling sadly. He held a hand out to me. When I stared at him with a tense expression, he spoke softly, explaining that if I was going to cry, it would help to cry around others rather than on my own.

Body shaking, I hesitantly accepted his offer. He squeezed my hand in his as he pulled me along behind him and his friends. They stopped at Floor Eighteen. Everyone piled into the second room on the left side of the hallway. The decoration of the room was astounding. All smooth round surfaces, black and white color scheme with gold highlights. It was beautiful. Musical instruments littered the space in almost every available space. We all sat on the bed in a circle. The guy introduced himself.

"The name's Isaac. Yeah, like Isaac Newton. Mom was a total physics nerd, so she made sure her kids all had scientist names. My dad is Bragi, the god of music and literature."

I smiled a bit at that, trying to ignore the onslaught of tears. "So mom was a science nerd and dad was an art student. Opposites attract, right?" Isaac nodded and laughed.

"Absolutely. We'll go around the circle."

One girl named Jessica leaned over and gave me a hug hello, smiling adorably. She was another daughter of Frigg. Her best friend sat beside her, a child of Thor named Jackson who had the most severe case of Resting Bitch Face that I'd ever seen in males.

An older-looking Asian boy named Timothy took my hand and kissed my knuckles, winking playfully as he explained that he was the son of Nerthus, the wife of Njörd. Beside him, two girls, obviously twins, introduced themselves as the children of Idunn, whose apples gave the gods their immortality.

Finally, it came to be my turn. "Um. I'm Flo, and my dad is Frey." They all either smirked in silence or chuckled. Jessica giggled.

"Oh, we know. We all remember that huge thing that happened with the Vala on your first day here. Hard to forget the children of Frey, in my opinion. First your brother came in here and scooped up victory like he was born for it. And now you come in here, a complete anomaly, with mysteries stacked on mysteries."

"Yeah, I guess there isn't much room for anonymity when your dad only has kids once every century," I tried to joke. They snickered a little, nodding.

Isaac grinned. "So now that introductions have been made, would you care to explain why you looked like you just got dumped when we were in the elevator together?"

I looked at the others. "Is he not gonna let it go?"

They spoke in unison. "Not until you tell."

Relenting to this fool's influence, I explained the fight. "My friends want me to go on this retrieval quest for Freya's spear. I said sure, because I need my aunt's help to know about myself. But I had a condition that if things went bad, I would sacrifice myself first. The quest before all, ya know? My friend Alexei raged. He said I was trying to make them worry and be upset for me by putting up this condition. I yelled back saying it's not about them. I just want to go on this quest, get it over with so I can speak to my aunt. Once that happens, do what she says, complete my duty, and just go to Helheim to _finally be at rest_. I said some things I shouldn't have said, and he pretty much kicked me out of the group, I guess."

The RBF guy shrugged. "You got a point. You have the right to do whatever you want with your body and self. Sacrifice yourself, hurt yourself, whatever it may be. They shouldn't have judged you for that."

One of the twins, Amy, shook her head. "Still, that doesn't mean you can get mad at him for wanting to protect you. I think you always assume your friendships are one-sided and that the other person doesn't care. So, you've gotten used to giving up your needs for theirs. All the time, you do that, and now you can't understand why they won't let you give up yourself for them."

The other twin, Annie, completed the thought. "You have to understand that they do care about you, which is why he got so angry that you would put them in what I'd easily say is emotional and situational blackmail. Either they let you sacrifice yourself if it's necessary, or you won't go on the quest. And seeing what you did to that guy who shot up your school," she began, — I winced at the reminder of the ultra-violent display I made — "you're a heavy hitter. They need your strength. You put them in this unfair position, and it's not right."

The gears in my mind turned quickly, processing what they were saying. I put my face in my hands and sighed. "So, all in all, I'm a shitty person." When Isaac said no, the twins said yes. I groaned. "Why am I like this?"

Timothy smiled knowingly. "I don't know much about you, but I know about Magnus. The guy's pretty damn cool. But he's also struggled with your issues. Unable to understand why others don't want to see your self-sacrificial mentality. You gotta let 'em care. They want to. They have a right to take care of you just as much as you have a right to take care of them."

I sighed again. "What should I do now?"

Jessica smiled gently, squeezing my shoulder. "Let them cool off, honey. Let them relax. Go and apologize once you have your shit together, and they have their shit together. Okay?"

My lips curved up into a shy smile. "You guys are awesome. Thank you so much. Seriously, I owe you peeps."

Isaac patted my back. "No big deal. Just trying to help out a fellow broken human soul. It's what we do. You wanna chill with us for a bit? We were thinking of heading down to the armory before practicing in the big arena before the next melee tomorrow."

"That sounds great actually. I could use the extra practice."

Timothy joked, "Don't we all?"

* * *

We huddled into the huge arena once we got what we needed. I carefully took note of the different weapons each person favored. Jessica actually wielded a bow and arrow. Timothy swung around a heavy-looking sword. Isaac's knives made me a little nervous, and Jackson's spear seemed to float in his hands as he maneuvered it expertly. Even the twins' weapons were formidable: Amy twirled her sai in her hands while Annie hefted an almost comically large axe over her shoulder.

Meanwhile, I stood there with my smaller sword and tried to recreate what I did a few days ago with the fire trick. I got it down after several fails, which included me only getting a spark like a weak lighter, me getting my eyebrows almost burned off from too much fire, and me not getting any fire at all like a pathetic matchstick.

The fourth try was perfect, and flames were big enough to cause damage, but small enough to allow for fine control. They flushed my sword with intense, gold-tinted light.

And then we began practicing. We'd go in different levels. One person would be chosen as the main while the others would slowly join the fight. The main would fight one opponent, and then another opponent would join, and more and more added onto the opponent side until it was one on six. Jessica was the first main, and I was the last.

Each fight drew more and more energy out of me, but when I became the main, my body practically switched its entire metabolic system, giving me more energy than I needed.

I fought each person ferociously, trying to find any weakness in their armor or fighting style. I didn't know much about fighting, but I knew about the human body and its soft spots. So, I went straight for those spots. It worked. And my powers worked with me too. I could feel the difference whenever I used them. It wasn't just beginners' luck. I actually utilized them properly like real tools in my box and not uncontrollable spurts of power coming from within me.

But when I went one to six, everything went wrong. Just a few minutes into the fight, my brain slowed down. My body still fought like doomsday was tomorrow, but my brain slowed, to the point that I couldn't even comprehend what was going on in that moment. Right after everything slowed, it suddenly sped up dramatically, and I couldn't process the extreme inflow of information. The overwhelming amount of sensory data from my surroundings fried my brain.

When my brain and body finally caught up with one another, I gasped in shock at the feeling of heat in my skin. I looked around at my new acquaintances, who had run away from me to cower near the door. I reached a hand out to them and screamed at the sight of my arm completely enveloped by flames. I checked the rest of my body for more fire and almost sobbed when I realized I was completely covered in fire. I tried to will it to go away. Nothing happened. I tried to push the flames off with my hands. Nothing happened. I even tried the old lesson from elementary school: stop, drop, and roll. Nothing happened. The floor just blackened as if there was an explosion. Actually, everywhere I put my foot, the beautiful marble floor charred.

I looked at the other teens desperately, crying tears of pure anguish and anxiety. I was so scared. I was petrified of remaining like this, just a ball of fire, for my whole life. I begged them to get my people, and they ran. One of them, the son of Nerthus, tried to help me calm down and extinguish the flames by bringing the water in our water bottles towards me with his powers. The water evaporated before it even reached within a six foot radius of me.

Timothy tried to come closer to make me do some breathing exercises, but he yelped at the heat coming off of my body. He couldn't bear to be within four feet of me because the fire was so intense.

It felt like a breath of fresh air when I saw my friends at last. I sobbed and begged for Alexei's help. I didn't feel like a human being with intelligence and self-control. I felt like a desperate injured animal that kept worsening the problem with every attempt at amelioration. At this point, anxiety had overtaken my mind, and my fear only fueled the raging flames on my body.

I saw not only my former team, but also my new friends and apparently the rest of Valhalla standing behind that door, watching me lose my mind. My team rushed forward, but my anxiety flared when my reptilian brain recognized them as a threat because they made me part of the outgroup. Because my anxiety now controlled my body and powers, the heat flared as well, and Alexei screamed as the temperature in the room rose about twenty degrees.

Poor Alexei burned himself multiple times while trying to reach me and make me calm down so the flames would lessen. At one point, he did what Timothy attempted to do with the water. Except Alexei brought in water from outside that they'd ordered from the kitchen to try and extinguish the fire on me. But even that didn't work. The increase in temperature vaporized the liquid before it could enter the superheated air bubble of nine foot radius that formed around me. Alexei screeched at Isaac to go "GET HELP RIGHT NOW!" Poor Isaac whimpered and ran faster than Usain Bolt in order to bring this issue to the hotel's attention.

Magnus and his people sprinted over like cheetahs, eyes blazing like the fire on my body. He evaluated the situation, looking at the room and then at me a few times.

Alex seemed to realize what Magnus was planning to do and put a hand on my half-brother's shoulder. "Magnus, no! You can't handle it! She's all fire and flame now! You'll burn with everything else in that room!"

He sighed, looking at his boyfriend seriously. "Alex, I'm her brother. Besides, there is literally no one else in Valhalla who can bear that heat. I've got the best chances of it. Son of Frey, remember? Just trust me. I'll be okay. If I ask for help, help me."

He ordered everyone loudly. The entire gaggle of people standing outside the door stood at attention when he called for them to do what he said. "Okay, guys! First thing, rip this door off its hinges. Too much pressure and heat in the room! Any hotter and the air will blow the roof right off the building. Second thing, I need all of my water people ready to flood this room once she's calm. Third thing, I need a couple of the fastest and strongest to rush to Blitzen's shop and bring back some fire-resistant ladies' clothes. One of Flo's female friends, go with them to make sure she'll like them. Fourth thing, I need someone to get the healers in here ASAP so the people who already got burned can be treated. SPLIT UP!"

The first group included a bunch of Valhalla's stronger, older einherjar. Everyone stepped far back into the halls as the twenty heroes quite literally ripped the doors off the hinges, the enchanted metal of the hinges screaming as it tore in two. The heroes dissipated into the crowd once more.

The water-users all rushed to stand in the doorway, leaving a path just wide enough for one person to walk through them without discomfort. They stood at the ready, huge vats of water placed behind them for easy access.

Magnus' elf friend signed a promise to teleport the third group to Blitzen's shop quickly. Four teens ran over, quickly explaining their parentage to Magnus, who told them to go with Hearthstone to the shop. They disappeared into darkness when Hearth used one of the runestones to open a portal right beside them.

The fourth group consisted of two former Olympic marathoners who announced so before sprinting off to get the medics.

Finally, Magnus turned his full attention to me. He pulled a runestone off the chain on his neck and held it in his palm. It expanded into his golden Sword of Summer. It mumbled something, and he asked it to cut through the heat and flames so he could reach me. It seemed to agree, and it positioned itself handle facing down and pointy tip facing up. It glowed as it moved forward, seeming to literally split the air like cutting open a curtain. The air had thickened and changed color because of the extreme temperatures I'd given off for so long, and that became obvious when the air seemed to clear around Magnus, who walked behind the sword.

He eventually reached me in the superheated zone, smiling gently as he took my face in his hands. He kept his eyes on my face, not looking at anywhere else. Like the sword cut through the heat, this observation cut through my anxiety to produce confusion. I looked down, trying to see why he wouldn't look anywhere but my face. My face heated even more when I saw that I had actually burned my way through every single layer of clothing I had donned that morning. The flames on my body just grew more intense, and I could see the air grow foggy again because of the new level of heat. Magnus ignored that. He didn't even seem to feel the pain of my fire.

He spoke gently, rubbing my cheek. "Kiddo. What happened to you?" He leaned his face forward and pressed our foreheads together. "What made you like this? Whatever it is, we'll figure it out. Birds of a feather, right? We'll be okay. But you have to trust me. You have to trust me to know what you need."

I broke at his words, sobbing helplessly into his hands. I kept crying for so long, I didn't even realize the flames had softened into gentle campfire flickers. I whimpered and sniffled, leaning my head against his shoulder. He rubbed my upper back softly. "Hey, now. Not too close. You don't like that, remember? But it's okay. I gotcha. I gotcha. Just keep my voice in your head, okay? I'll help you. I promise. Trust me."

My head nodded slowly as I tried to ignore everything else in my mind and just focus on his voice. I eventually did calm down enough for my skin to only look like I was made of lava rather than to look like I was a sun myself. But even still, the room felt like someone had drowned it in gasoline before lighting it on fire. It was still that unbearably hot. Well, that's what everyone else tells me.

Magnus didn't push me back or do anything besides keep a hand on my shoulder and a hand on my upper back to rub circles into my skin for comfort.

After what felt like eternity, Hearth and the teens returned with many bags of clothes and Blitzen himself. They realized I was completely bare. My team snarled at anyone trying to get a closer look in the room. Alexei pushed through the group of water-users after getting healed and made around us a massive ring of flowing water from the vats behind him. The movement of the water kept both Magnus and I from outside view. After a little while, Magnus kissed the top of my head. "I promise I'll give you a hug, but only after you get some clothes on, okay? And then we'll talk." I nodded and sniffled, a bit more relaxed now.

Alexei opened the ring far from the door so no one would see me as Magnus walked out and my ladies walked in. Ella and Helga cooed softly as I sobbed again, reaching for them like a crying child reaching for his mother. They curled themselves around me, ignoring the burning pains in their arms and legs when their skin made contact with mine. I sobbed and begged for their forgiveness. They gave it to me freely, kissing all over my face as reassurance for me.

After a beat, Alex walked into the ring of water, fireproof clothes in his arms. He momentarily shifted genders, facial structure morphing from mostly masculine to mostly feminine, body softening and curving more. In a pathetically soft tone, I asked why he changed. He walked closer and placed the clothes into my hands. "Because in this case, I need to be what you need, not what I feel. Besides, shifting between genders is easy for me. I can go back to male once I get out of this ring." I bit my lip and hesitantly asked for a hug. Alex didn't deny me, pulling me into a warm, tight embrace, cold fingers stroking through my hair like my mom used to do. I mumbled an 'I love you' to Alex, who simply kissed my forehead like Magnus did. "Love you too, kid. Stay safe. You sleep in with Maggie and I tonight, okay?"

I nodded, whispering airily to her, "Sure. Thanks, Ma."

Alex cooed, rubbing my back before letting go of me again to leave the ring. My ladies smiled and rubbed my face, stroking my cheeks while telling me soft, sweet nothings. Helga didn't say as much, but fitted me into the clothes, which glowed as they magically adjusted to my body. I sniffled and let Ella coddle me with kisses and pets to my head.

Eventually, I was fully clothes in all my usual layers: innerwear, skinny jeans, T-shirt, and hoodie. I hugged and clung to my ladies when they finally finished clothing me. They squished me between them, arms tight around me. Alexei returned the water of the ring to the vats and rushed towards us. He hesitated when I looked up to meet eyes with him. I gave him a shy smile and nodded, trying to signal that I wanted him there too. He gave a tearful smile and sprinted ahead, yanking the three of us into his arms. James practically galloped through the air as he grabbed us from the opposite side as Alexei. I started crying again once I felt all four of my people curled around me. They all kissed my face and didn't let me go until they knew I was completely okay.

Helga grunted softly. "Don't you ever fucking do that again, do you understand? You are ours. Goddamn, how long will it take you to realize that, Flower? You are ours. You brought us together with your affection. We didn't realize it then, but we wanted you with us. No one in this place is ever a replacement for you. No one. And we want you with us." I nodded weakly, tucking my head under her chin. She sighed and held me tighter.

Alexei murmured softly that we needed to meet with Alex and Magnus before doing anything else. I nodded and sniffled.

So as we made our way up to the Chase-Fierro room after Chase and Fierro, we kept close. If someone wasn't already holding one of my hands, they were talking to me and trying to bring up my mood with bad jokes and cute stories. The couple spoke quietly amongst themselves, ignoring us for the most part, only smiling in acknowledgment when they looked at us.

When we walked into their room, Magnus and Alex suggested we sit on the bed rather than on the couches. When we asked why, Alex responded, "I'm a person helping my boyfriend's sister with something troubling her and her friends, not a therapist trying to wheedle quick and easy answers out of a group of hurting teenagers just to make a buck. I want and need you guys to be relaxed and comfortable. This truly is a safe space."

I sat across from Magnus on the bed, my group settling down at various distances from me. Helga and Ella kept themselves at my sides, holding my hands and trying to ease me into comfort after that harsh situation. James sat behind me, a rock of support and comfort. Alexei sat on the opposite side of Ella. He sat a little further from me than the others, as if afraid to get close. It made sense. I hurt him emotionally and physically. He shouldn't have to sit near the person who damaged him.

Magnus reached a hand out to me, which I held tightly. His face was warm and soft, eyes light like clouds in the summer sky. "So tell me where all of this started."

I explained everything top to bottom, down to the details of everyone's reactions to everything I said. He kept quiet as I talked, occasionally looking at Alex to confer about something before looking back at me. It happened a few times, the young couple obviously speaking on practically a telepathic level.

Alex looked at the others. "Anything you guys want to add?"

They mentioned their side of the story after I left.

 _There was a huge silence in that meeting room. Alexei completely broke down, unable to bear the pain of my words on his own. Helga went to his side to comfort him, wrapping him up in his arms as he cried to her and explained his aching heart. They all sat in silence, the only sound being Alexei's heartbroken sniffles._

 _Ella looked at James and asked, "We did this the completely wrong way, but how do we fix it?"_

 _He seemed to have lost some hope. "I don't know. She looked just as hurt as we felt, Ella. I don't know if we're getting her back. I don't know if we even deserve her."_

 _Alexei whimpered. "You guys deserve her. You didn't say what I said. You didn't hurt her. I did. This is on me, not you."_

 _Helga shook her head. "This is on us, Alexei. On all of us. We together hurt her. If we want her back, we need to apologize. That's how it works. If she says no, we keep trying. We keep trying until it's clear that there's no hope to be had. She's one of us. She's actually the first of us. We may have planned to meet that first day, but she brought us together, comforting us after we saw each of our stories in video and were traumatized again."_

 _Alexei nodded, rubbing away his tears and sitting up. He had to calm down first, though, and give himself time to heal. Helga needed to plan and think and see what had to be done to regain my trust. Ella needed to see what felt wrong in her heart and comfort herself. James needed to drown out his emotions._

 _So, they went their separate ways. Until, that is, someone from each person's respective floor told them they were needed at the melee arena. And then they scrambled to get down to the arena. They saw a huge group of people at the door of the arena. They felt the change in temperature even before coming near the door. The others couldn't get to the doorway. Alexei, because of his water-based powers, was able to get through the door, at least._

I gazed at them and then down at the patterned comforter, removing my hands from the ladies' grasps. "I can't believe…"

Helga hissed. "No. Do not dare blame yourself for this. Not allowed. You are not at fault."

Alex smiled gently, almost in amusement. "She kind of is. She didn't even stop to understand why you guys hated the idea of her self-sacrifice condition. She didn't let you guys explain yourselves. She just went straight ahead without forethought or logic. It's surprising you're taking her side right now. But it shouldn't be. You guys think she's the center of your group. Dare I say, you guys think she's the center of your world; though, it's a bit early for that. You all don't even comprehend the complexity of your care for her."

Magnus chuckled. "Big words for a big dum-dum."

"Okay, I was on a roll, Maggie. Shut up," Alex grumbled. He went on. "You all carry the blame. Flo should have considered what you guys felt. She ignored how much you guys care about her and how much you want to keep her safe. You guys put yourselves in her shoes and can't imagine bearing the weight of her struggles, so you want to protect her. But you guys should have realized her struggle with friendship and sacrifice. Based on how she acts, she's always been in one-sided friendships. She gives and gives but never receives. So, her brain assumes that's how friendships need to be, and she always puts everyone before herself. It's not her fault. It's the fault of the people who trained her to think that she can't receive anything her friends give her."

Magnus smiled, looking at all of us kindly. "You all are to blame for what happened. But that doesn't mean you can't fix things. Talk. Talk a lot. Figure stuff out. You don't need to come back to us for more fake therapy. Just make sure that when Flo comes back up here for the night, she reports to us that things are getting better, even if it means just getting hugs from you guys and talking tiny basic issues. Okay?"

We all nodded, a bit duller than we were at first, but also a bit more hopeful than we were at first. The five of us left the room quietly, moving down the hall to go to my room. I felt the starting signs of anxiety show themselves, but James' steady hand on my back kept me grounded enough to let them all in.

We walked inside. I seated myself on the bed, leaning against the headboard for support. Everyone joined me on the bed, the five of us forming a circle on the beautiful tropical-themed comforter. We said nothing for approximately four minutes. Pure silence filled the room like sand, growing thicker as we all exchanged gazes.

James coughed awkwardly. "So uh, that fire was really intense."

I let a nervous laugh escape my lips. "Yeah uh. It was pretty bad. Anxiety made it worse, so you know. Uncontrollable."

Alexei nodded. "Good thing Magnus got there in time."

"Yep…" I ended lamely.

Helga sighed. "We're really bad at this."

Ella and I giggled softly. "I guess," she started. "We don't really talk about this stuff often. And it's our first actual fight."

I nodded, looking at them weakly. "I'm so sorry. I'll start with that. I'm so so sorry. I hurt you all so much. I ignored you and made you upset, saying all that I said. I'm so sorry." I turned to face Alexei, hands quaking as I moved to cradle his face in my palms. Our eyes filled with tears when they met. "I'm sorry I hurt you. Hurt your body. Hurt your heart. I'm so sorry."

He surged forward, arms coiling around my body tightly before they pulled me closer to him. I curled up in his lap, fingers scrambling to grip onto his back tightly. We stayed like that for several minutes, just trying to hold onto and feel each other's presence. We pulled away, and he placed me back in my spot, a hand coming to hold my cheek gently.

Wet smiles slid onto our faces, and before I could look at the other three of my friends, they already were wrapping themselves around me and kissing whatever part of my face they could reach. My tears quickened, and I let them drown me in their affections, grasping whatever part of their collars I could to keep them close to me. After a moment or two, Alexei joined in, keeping us all close and tight, surrounding us like a massive blanket of warmth, safety, and comfort. I sniffled after we all got our fill of affection and moved apart.

"I'm so stupid."

"If you're stupid, we are too. Don't forget what Alex and Magnus said, Flo. We're all to blame for us," Helga reminded us. I could only smile up at her and kiss her cheeks.

I smiled at all of them, speaking softly as I lied down on the bed and opened my arms for them to lie down beside me. "Just get down here and hug me, you fools." Each curled around or on top of me. James lay at my left, laying an arm over my waist protectively as he pressed against my side. I smiled up at him, stretching my hand out to rub off the tears on his cheeks. Helga squished against my right, her hands moving to grasp me by the waist tightly. I swear, I almost couldn't breathe while squeezed between those two. She pressed her face into my neck, tears streaking her cheekbones as she breathed in against my skin. Alexei lied down behind Helga, resting a protective arm over her and I, his hand pressed on my stomach.

Unlike the others, Gabriella fit snug between my legs, lying front side down with her face on my stomach. She pressed her hands to my sides.

I agree that this was probably a bit too intimate of a position for friends to take while sleeping, but these four people are my life. I realized that right then and there. With all four of those idiots pressed around me, I realized how tightly our lives and fates were intertwined. I realized I needed them just as much as they needed me.

So, despite what others would have thought had they observed us in that scene, I let my mind drift off to sleep as my four angels wrapped themselves around me to get as close as possible.

I was (and am) theirs, and they were (and are) mine.


End file.
